French police assist a woman following Cherlie Hebdo shooting attack
French police assist a woman following Cherlie Hebdo shooting attackReuters

A French policewoman has been shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Paris, just one day after the deadly attack which killed 12 people at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in the center of the French capital.

The policewoman was gunned down along with a second victim - who is hospitalized in serious condition - in the southern Parisian suburb of Montrouge. The gunman then fled the scene.

It is as yet unclear whether the latest shooting is connected to Wednesday's attack.

Meanwhile, a manhunt continues for two Islamist extremists believed to be the gunmen behind the massacre. 

Brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi are still at large, after an 18-year-old suspected of being their accomplice voluntarily handed himself over to police last night. Authorities are describing them as armed and dangerous.

Seven additional people have been arrested in Paris, Reims and Charleville-Mezieres, in a series of raids by heavily-armed French police in connection to the attack. 

Watch: French police make arrests overnight

Investigators are said to have got their first lead early on, after one of the attackers left his identity papers in the abandoned getaway vehicle.

Suspected gunman Cherif Kouachi was already known to French authorities prior to the attack, having been jailed for three years in 2008 for his part in an Islamist terrorist cell sending French Muslims to fight in Iraq. That revelation has led some to question how a known extremist with links to established terrorist networks was able to plan and carry such a brazen attack in broad daylight under the noses of intelligence services.