A burning car outside a Paris synagogue hours after the Charlie Hebdo attack. Photo: Twitter

A car exploded outside a synagogue near Paris just hours after Islamist terrorists murdered twelve people in a gun assault on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Initial reports were unclear as to whether the cause of the explosion was a bomb, with some correspondents suggesting that the blast was the result of a mechanical failure.

The explosion, in the mixed Muslim-Jewish suburb of Sarcelles – the site of violent anti-Semitic demonstrations last summer, during the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas – took place at approximately 2:30 pm local time.

Sarcelles Mayor Francois Pupponi said that the car explosion was an “accidental, unrelated incident” not connected to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

French Jewish news outlet JSS News reported that an initial police assessment concluded that the explosion was an accident. However, JSS also pointed out that the car was parked by a roundabout where “it is strictly forbidden to stop.” The paper also questioned whether a mechanical fault could have caused such an intense explosion.

This story will be updated as further reports come in.