A HUGE manhunt stretching across France sought the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre today as the country’s Muslim population feared a racist backlash.

The two main suspects in the Islamist attack on the satirical magazine in Paris were said to have robbed a service station in the north of France.

Robbers identified by witnesses as brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi stole food and petrol, firing shots as they struck at the roadside stop near Villers-Cotterets in the Aisne region north of the capital.

And Hamyd Mourad, said to be the brother-in-law of one of the main suspects and a suspect himself, surrendered to police at 11pm on Wednesday “after seeing his name circulating on social media.”

But classmates of 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad claim that they were in class with him at the time of the attack.

There were at least three apparent revenge attacks on Muslim sites across France.

Blank grenades were thrown at a mosque in Le Mans and a bullet fired through one of the windows, while several shows were fired at a prayer hall shortly after evening prayers in Port-la-Nouvelle district.

A kebab shop near a mosque in the country’s east was blown up but, as in the other attacks, there were no casualties.

Meanwhile, France observed a minute’s silence at midday to remember the 12 people killed in the attack on the newspaper office.

And, earlier in the day, a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a handgun and an unidentified assault weapon shot dead a policewoman south of Paris.

A second person was seriously injured in the attack in Montrouge, after which the gunman fled.

It is unclear if the attack was related to the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

More than 35,000 people gathered in Paris on Wednesday night. Thousands also turned out in Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Marseille.

President Francois Hollande had ordered flags to fly at half-mast for three days.

And, after the minute of silence at midday, the bells of Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral sounded out across the city.

“Nothing can divide us, nothing should separate us,” said Mr Hollande, who held talks with his main rival conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy.

“Freedom will always be stronger than barbarity,” claimed the president.