PARIS - There are unconfirmed media reports that one of the suspects in the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine has been killed by police and the other two taken into custody.

NBC News quoted two senior US counter-terrorism officials as saying this, as an anti-terror raid was underway in the French city of Reims.

French anti-terror police launched a late-night raid on Wednesday in a frantic manhunt for masked gunmen who shouted "Allahu akbar" as they killed 12 people at a satirical weekly in Paris, sparking global outrage.

Local television showed black-clad sharpshooters from the elite police unit in the streets of Reims, in France's Champagne region, as unconfirmed media reports named three suspects in the attack, including two brothers.

Police issued a document to forces across the region, saying three men were being sought for murder in relation to the Charlie Hebdo attack.

The document, reviewed by a Reuters correspondent, named them as Said Kouachi, 34, Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Hamyd Mourad, 18. The police source said one of them had been identified by his identity card which had been left in the getaway car.

The Kouachi brothers were from the Paris region while Mourad was from the north-eastern city of Reims, said reports. One of the brothers had previously been tried on terrorism charges, according to the reports.

The hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly militant attack on French soil in decades.