A day after the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, Said and Cherif Kouachi, the suspects, held up a gas station near the town of Villers-Cotterets on Thursday and are now possibly hiding in Foret de Retz.

The French police are in hot pursuit of the brothers and have sent helicopters and SWAT teams to scour the 51-square-mile forest, one of the largest in France and bigger than Paris, to capture the two, reports Fox News.

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After stealing gas and food from the gas station, the two men who fit the description of the Kouachi brothers, left the village, located in France's northern Aisne region, aboard a Renault Chio. Their getaway vehicle reportedly had weapons inside and its license plates were covered.

An AFP report said they wore masks and carried a rocket launcher.

The SWAT teams initially searched the town of Crepy-en-Valois, which is about 10 miles from the gas station that the brothers robbed, by questioning all residents and checking homes and the woods of the area. After that, they proceeded to Foret de Retz.

Cherif Kouachi has been monitored in the past by French intelligence services for the recruitment of people and sending them to Iraq to serve as jihad fighters. He was also convicted for terrorism in 2008.

Euronews reports that the two are sons of parents born in France, but their grandparents are from Algeria. They were born in Paris but grew up in an orphanage in Rennes after their parents died.

The brothers are reportedly included in two U.S. security databases. One is TIDE, which has information on 1.2 million possible counter-terrorism suspects, and the other is the Terrorist Screening Center's "no fly" list.

As a result of the Islamist attack on the satirical newspaper, France elevated its terror alert system to maximum level. It also deployed 800 soldiers to media offices, mosques and churches, transportation and other sensitive areas.

While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, probers suspect it is linked to overseas terrorist groups because less than an hour after the incident, there were several tweets that featured images of three prominent al-Qaeda leaders, namely Ayman al Zawahin of Pakistan, Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen and Samir Khan in the U.S.

TagsCharlie Hebdo, massacre, Paris shooting, Kouachi brothers