Conspiracy theories all over the place in wake of Charlie Hebdo attacks in France

Could the January 7 Charlie Hebdo attack have been a secret service operation or perhaps an anti-Muslim plot? The wildest conspiracy theories found their way onto the internet within hours of the Paris bloodbath.

Just as it did in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States, the rumour machine moved into top gear from the very moment the first reports about the shootings emerged.

Among the most frequently mentioned is the apparent change in colour of the rearview mirrors of a car used by the Kouachi brothers - white on an image taken near the Charlie Hebdo office where they killed 12 people and black in a later image of the abandoned vehicle.

Experts put the change down to the fact that the mirrors were made out of highly reflective chrome, which can change colour according to the light.

Other details providing rich material for the conspiracy theorists included the identity card mislaid by one of the Kouachi brothers and the telephone receiver not properly put back on its hook at the supermarket where gunman Amedy Coulibaly killed four people during a hostage siege two days later.

Even the route of the January 11 solidarity march through Paris has been given dubious significance in the minds of some, with claims that it mirrored the outline of Israel's borders.

Emmanuel Taieb, a professor at the Sciences-Po Lyon university in central-eastern France and a specialist in conspiracy plots, said that for many the official interpretation of events - as provided by the police, politicians and analysts - was simply too dull for them. "It is considered poor, disappointing. So it is ruled out or questioned in favour of a more appealing, worrying analysis," Taieb said.