2053 GMT: Merah only attacked the Jewish school in Toulouse Monday because he wanted to kill a soldier but could not find a military target, interior minister Claude Gueant tells LCI television. The school attack left three children and a teacher dead and sent shockwaves across France.
2019 GMT: A bid to broker Merah's surrender through someone he knew failed just before the decision was taken to turn the lights off, an unnamed source close to the matter tells AFP. Despite the darkness elsewhere, Merah's building is still lit up through an alternative source.
2014 GMT: The decision to switch off the lights, reported by an AFP correspondent on the ground, could be in anticipation of an assault on the apartment where Merah is holed up.
2011 GMT: We are now hearing that street lights in the area where the siege is taking place have been switched off.
1947 GMT: Gueant's full quote: "He explained how he received instructions from Al-Qaeda during his stay in Pakistan, how he had even been suggested to carry out a suicide mission but refused, but accepted to carry out a general mission to commit an attack in France." Prosecutors have already said that Merah, the suspect, has told negotiators he was trained by the late Osama bin Laden's Islamist network on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
1943 GMT: More very interesting comments from Claude Gueant, the French interior minister. He told TF1 TV that the suspect had received orders from Al-Qaeda but refused their request for him to carry out a suicide attack.
1931 GMT: France's interior minister says the gunman was given a "mission" for attacks in the country.
1914 GMT: More on the potential political implications of this tense stand-off. While some experts say it could favour the far-right, others add Sarkozy could win credit for being in power when the suspect was tracked down. However, there may be questions about why French intelligence tracked him for several years without taking action.
1856 GMT: US President Barack Obama calls President Nicolas Sarkozy to offer his condolences. The French presidency says in a statement: "France and the United States are more determined than ever to fight together against terrorist barbarism."
1855 GMT: Questions are also being asked about what impact this situation will have on the result of the French presidential elections in May. Some analysts say it could boost Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front. Le Pen has warned in the aftermath of the shootings that: "The danger of fundamentalism has been underestimated in our country."
1838 GMT: It is now over 16 hours since the siege started and more descriptions are emerging of the suspect Merah. In the area of Toulouse where he is from, one youth described him to AFP as "gentle, calm, respectful and generous." He added that Merah "prayed but was not an extremist." Earlier, Eric Lambert, the father of one of his neighbours, said Merah was "like anyone else in the street who would give you a hand to carry a sofa."
1826 GMT: Defence officials confirm that Merah twice tried to sign up for the French army -- once in 2008 and then for the famed Foreign Legion two years later.
1821 GMT: With the standoff stretching into the evening, let's recap for readers just joining this Live Report. Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent who describes himself as an Al-Qaeda militant, is holed up in a Toulouse apartment. He has claimed responsibility for recent shootings which have shocked the nation -- the killing of three French paratroopers, three Jewish children and a teacher. Merah has held off several police assaults on the flat and is believed to be heavily armed.
1748 GMT: More on Merah from the French prosecutor. He says that from mid August to mid October 2011, the suspected gunman visited Pakistan, where he contracted hepatitis A.
1720 GMT: A scooter dealer in Toulouse tells AFP he played a key role in identifying the suspect. Christian Dellacherie, who owns the Yam 31 Yamaha dealership, says he provided investigators with the name of the suspected gunman, Mohamed Merah.
Watching surveillance footage shown to him by police, Dellacherie had noticed that the scooter used in the attack had been partially repainted white and recalled a man who came into his shop a few days earlier saying he had taken his scooter apart to repaint it. "I gave them the first and last names of the young man, which we had in our database since he was 14 years old," Dellacherie said.
1710 GMT: Police have also found a camera that the killer may have used to film the attacks, Molins confirms, responding to reporters' questions at a press conference in Toulouse. It was discovered "in a bag which he had given to an acquaintance to look after," the prosecutor adds.
1647 GMT: Police have found the scooter allegedly used by the gunman and are looking for a car that may contain weapons, the French prosecutor says. "A T-Max scooter has been found with the two dark and white helmets used at the different crime scenes, while a Clio is actively sought and everything leads us to believe that it contains a certain number of weapons and ammunition."
1642 GMT: Merah said he was driven by the fate of the Palestinians, France's involvement in Afghanistan and the banning of the veil in France, Molins says. A France 24 journalist who received a call during the night from a man claiming to be the killer earlier cited the same motives.
1631 GMT: The French prosecutor continues: "Mohamed Merah explained that he belonged to Al-Qaeda. He explained he had been trained by Al-Qaeda in the Pakistani-Afghanistan region in Waziristan. He explained his trips abroad, including his time in Afghanistan.
"He said he does not have a suicidal spirit, he did not have a martyr's soul, he preferred to kill and remain alive."
1622 GMT: Francois Molins is France's top anti-terror magistrate, who is overseeing the probe into the killing of three soldiers, three Jewish children and a teacher. Refering to the suspect, Molins told reporters: "He says he always acted alone." "He has expressed no regret" except "not having been able to have more victims".
1609 GMT: The French prosecutor has also given details of the incident earlier in which two officers were wounded. He says police attempted several assaults on the holed-up suspect but were fired on each time.
Two officers were wounded by Mohamed Merah, one in the knee and one when a bullet hit his flak jacket, Molins says, adding that the alleged serial killer had identified two police he wanted to kill.
1604 GMT: Merah has claimed all three French shootings, Molins says.
1600 GMT: The suspect boasted of bringing "France to its knees", the prosecutor adds.
1558 GMT: Molins says the gunman has pledged to surrender "later this evening".
1556 GMT: More details emerging about the gunman from French prosecutor Francois Molins. He tells reporters that the US army sent the gunman back to France after he was arrested in Afghanistan.
1547 GMT: The ceremony in memory of soldiers Imad Ibn Ziaten, killed March 11, and Abel Chennouf and Mohammed Legouade, both killed March 15, has come to a close.
1545 GMT: The president reflects on a fourth soldier wounded in the attacks who is fighting for his life. He says he hopes doctors can save him and calls on his brothers in arms to support him.
1537 GMT: "A French soldier knows death and knows how to look it in the face, but the death our men met was not the death for which they were prepared. It was not death on the field of battle but a terrorist execution," Sarkozy says. The killer wanted to "bring France to its knees", he adds, but failed.
1520 GMT: Back in Montauban - a memorial ceremony is under way for the three soldiers gunned down at their barracks. Speaking at the service, President Nicolas Sarkozy says the French paratroopers were victims of a "terrorist execution".
1516 GMT: A police source tells AFP the suspect, Mohamed Merah, planned to kill another soldier. He says the suspect "told investigators this morning that he had decided to kill a soldier in Toulouse on Wednesday morning and had already identified the victim."
1510 GMT: Police are analysing explosives found in the car of Merah's brother, a source close to the inquiry says, adding that they consisted of black powder that could be lignite, a slow-burning fuel. Police earlier searched homes of the suspect's mother and brother. Gueant says the pair have been placed under "precautionary detention".
1454 GMT: French Interior Minister Gueant tells AFP negotiations are "still under way".
A source close to the operation says the negotiations had been suspended in the morning because Merah "was tired, he wanted to rest and to read" but had since continued. He warned the talks may be "long and difficult" as "the young man has a strong temperament".
1446 GMT: Nicole Yardeni, head of the CRIF Jewish group in the Midi-Pyrenees region, said Sarkozy had told representatives of the Jewish community that the shooter "already had a plan to kill again" and that "he planned to kill this morning". Sarkozy, who later visited the scene of the siege, has left without comment after spending close to an hour there.
1440 GMT: Breaking news - Sarkozy has said the gunman planned a new attack Wednesday, according to a Jewish leader.
1435 GMT: Mohamed Merah was convicted around 15 days ago to one month in prison for driving without a licence and was supposed to see a judge in April about the sentence.
1419 GMT: "The suspect's lawyer Christian Etelin said he discoverd two years ago that Merah had "suddenly radicalised" and gone to Afghanistan. "I told him that, given his travels, he must be under close police surveillance and that he had better not do anything wrong," Etelin says. "He did not give the impression that he could become radical and want to start committing acts of such absolute harshness."
1402 GMT: No arrest - French Interior Minister Claude Gueant denies that the suspect has been detained, refuting earlier media reports of an arrest.
1339 GMT: New evidence - French police say explosives have been found in the car of the suspect's brother. Police said earlier they had detained the suspect's mother and brother, along with the brother's girlfriend.
1330 GMT: Back in Toulouse - Sarkozy arrives at the place where the suspect is holed up. The French president is to meet with police in charge of the operation and religious community representatives, before visiting wounded victims in hospital. He will later attend a ceremony in honour of three dead soldiers.
1327 GMT: Snipers have been positioned in Montauban Cathedral during Chennouf's funeral to support the deployment of several CRS riot police units, according to town mayor Brigitte Bar?ges.
1316 GMT: In Montauban, southern France, mourners have gathered for the first of the funerals of the three soldiers killed in the attacks. "We are this morning a people united beyond conflicts of thought and divisions", said the Bishop of Montauban, Bernard Ginoux, in Montauban Cathedral, in front of the flag-draped coffin of Corporal Abel Chennouf.
1247 GMT: Police say are treating seriously the call to news channel France 24 by a man claiming to be the killer. The call came two hours before special forces cornered the suspect. Claiming to be affiliated to Al-Qaeda, the caller said "either I will go prison with my head held high or I will die with a smile," according to journalist Ebba Kalondo.
1227 GMT: More details are emerging about the suspect, with French Interior Minister Claude Gueant saying he was part of a group of Islamic Salafist fundamentalists in Toulouse who had made two trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He carried out at least 18 minor crimes, reports say, and was arrested in Afghanistan's former Taliban stronghold Kandahar in late 2010 for an unspecified crime, according to a source close to the inquiry.
1212 GMT: At the scene - The murder suspect has resumed negotiations with police, officers say. He had cut off talks with police about two hours earlier.
1210 GMT: Referring to a "polite and courteous" man, Etelin describes Merah as "a gentle, amenable individual and certainly not a fanatic." He said his client had served a prison sentence for "a common crime" after snatching a bag from someone in a bank.
1157 GMT: Lawyer Christian Etelin, who has defended Merah over various petty crimes since 2004, tells BFM-TV that "the situation and what I know of his personality, with certain fragile aspects, leads me to fear unpredictable behaviour."
1147 GMT: In Toulouse - Several young men, presenting themselves as friends of Merah, have arrived near the scene where he is holed up in a flat, offering to act as mediators, AFP's Nicolas Gaudichet reports. Police are asking them to wait.
1143 GMT: According to a police source, Mohammed Merah, born October 10, 1988, in Toulouse, had recently been refused entry into the army. His killing methods suggest someone who was trained and used to using weapons.
1132 GMT: The France 24 journalist who received a call claiming responsibility for the attacks describes the caller as "a very eloquent young man and "very, very calm". "He said that it was to avenge the law against wearing the veil and France's participation in the war in Afghanistan and also to protest against the situation in Palestine," she tells France Info.
1102 GMT: Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad says extremists must stop "marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine" and "stop pretending to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children who only ask for a decent life". The shooting suspect claims to have acted to avenge Palestinian children, France's interior minister said earlier.
1046 GMT: Those neighbours trapped in the besieged flats, who were pleading to be let out, have in fact now been evacuated, police say. Officers said they were in shock and were being offered psychiatric support.
1040 GMT: At the scene - Neighbours trapped inside the five-storey apartment building besieged by French special forces in Toulouse are pleading for authorities to get them out. "You must ask them to get us out!" a sobbing woman told France Info radio by telephone, saying she lived just above the first floor flat where the suspect was holed up.
1035 GMT: Palestinian diplomatic missions in France condemn the "hateful" Jewish school attack "in the strongest possible terms". "All racist crimes are attacks on humanity in general and on the republic in particular," they said in a statement, issued in the name of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the Palestinian Authority, and Palestine's missions to France and UNESCO.
1031 GMT: President Nicolas Sarkozy, giving a TV address, says: "Terrorism will not succeed in fracturing our national community".
1028 GMT: French socialist presidential candidate Fran?ois Hollande voices his "relief" that the suspect has been identified and hopes "the operation unfolds normally".
1020 GMT: France's domestic intelligence agency had tracked the suspect "for years", Gueant admits, telling journalists: "He had for several years been tracked by the DCRI and its agents in Toulouse, but there was never anything to suggest that he was preparing a criminal act."
1015 GMT: The French interior minister says the gunman has stopped negotiating with police. "He is no longer talking, the conversations have stopped," Gueant tells journalists in Toulouse. Earlier police said they were in talks with Mohammed Merah who had pledged to surrender later.
1012 GMT: More on the latest arrests... the mother and brother of the suspect has been detained along with the brother's girlfriend, police reveal. Police had said previously that the brother was in custody and that the mother had been taken to the siege scene to try and get her son to surrender.
1009 GMT Sarkozy is also to meet today with the head of the French Muslim Council, Mohammed Moussaoui, and Richard Prasquier, the head of France's main Jewish organisation, the CRIF.
1006 GMT: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is going to Montauban for a memorial ceremony for the three soldiers killed at 1430 GMT, will "pass by Toulouse" and "meet the investigators to thank them", Intererior Minister Claude Gueant announces.
0955 GMT: Police and ministers say the gunman's mother and brother have been arrested and that the shooter has stopped talking to police. More to follow.
0943 GMT: At the funeral of the four school shooting victims, taking place in Jerusalem, Israeli interior minister Eli Yishai says: "There is justice and there is a judge. We hope that the government of France will take the strongest steps against the perpetrators and do everything to ensure the safety of all the Jews in France, to chase out anti-Semitism and its supporters."
0939 GMT: France's top Muslim leader speaks out against the shootings, saying the killer acted against Islam. "These acts are in total contradiction with the foundations of this religion," says the head of the French Muslim Council, Mohammed Moussaoui. "France's Muslims are offended by this claim of belonging to this religion."
0929 GMT: More on the comments from French Interior Minister Claude Gueant ... he says the suspect is thought to be armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Mini-Uzi 9mm machine pistol and other handguns, but has thrown the .45 pistol believed to have been used in the shootings from the window.
"The presumed guilty party asked for a means to communicate with police. In exchange for this means of communication, he threw a Colt .45 from the window. He has certainly thrown one weapon out, but he has others," Gueant told BFM-TV.
Earlier Gueant said the suspect had spoken to officers through the door of his apartment, and declared himself to be a "mujaheedeen" or Islamic warrior fighting to avenge Palestinian children killed in the conflict with Israel.
0913 GMT: The France 24 journalist who received a call during the night from a man claiming to be the killer tells AFP journalist Nicolas Gaudichet he gave her details of the murder, including the number of shots fired and type of weapon used. "He said he was affiliated with Al-Qaeda and that it was only the beginning...that everything was filmed... and that it would be on the web shortly".
0857 GMT: The explosion heard earlier near the building where the suspect is holed up came from the destruction of a vehicle which was blocking police efforts, a source close to the investigation says.
0850 GMT: The besieged suspect has declared he will surrender later today, Interior Minister Claude Gueant says.
"He is currently in a dialogue with a police official and he says, I do not know if he is telling the truth, that he he will hand himself in later in the day," the minister tells BFM-TV.
0843 GMT: Back in France, police have named the suspected gunman as Mohammed Merah, 23, of Algerian origin.
0840 GMT: Meanwhile in Jerusalem funerals are under way for the three French-Israeli children and a teacher who were gunned down in the Jewish school shooting, AFP correspondent Selim Saheb Ettaba reports from Israel.
At least 2,000 mourners were gathered at the Givat Shaul cemetery as the four bodies were carried to the gravesite. Among them is French Foreign Minister Alain Jupp? as well as family and friends of the deceased.
0835 GMT: French Interior Minister Claude Gueant says police want to catch the suspect alive. He tells BFM television: "Our main concern is to catch him and to catch him under such conditions that he can be brought to justice."
0830 GMT: A loud blast was heard earlier near the besieged building, an AFP journalist reports.
LIVE REPORT: French police have surrounded a house in Toulouse where a man suspected of a series of deadly shootings is holed up. In this live report AFP will be following the operation as it unfolds.
So far two officers have been wounded after shots were fired at the property under siege in a residential area of the city.
The suspect is a French national of North African origin who has declared himself a member of the Al-Qaeda network, officials said.
In the latest development, police said the suspect had been previously arrested in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. A source close to the investigation told AFP that the 23-year-old had once been arrested on a matter of common law in the country.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-shootings-siege-live-report-083034635.html
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