French police swoop on gun suspect

2012-03-21 60

PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL

French police have raided a house in Toulouse in their hunt for the killer of three Jewish children and a rabbi outside a school.

Two officers have been wounded in a shootout with those inside the building.

The house is in a residential area close to the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school where the killings took place on Monday.

The killer's also been linked to the deaths of three French soldiers of North African origin and wounding another of Caribbean origin.

The same weapon was used in both attacks.

The prosecutor handling the hunt for the killer had earlier warned the killer could attack again.

SOUNDBITE: PROSECUTOR FRANCOIX MOLINS SAYING (French):

"In these exceptional circumstances I think it is obvious that we're up against an extremely determined individual who knows he is being hunted and who could strike again."

This small room in government offices in Toulouse is the nerve centre of a massive security operation in response to the killings.

For the first time in three decades of anti-terror operations France has raised its alert status to its highest level.

SOUNDBITE: MARUCE BARATE, SENIOR CIVIL SERVANT IN TOULOUSE MIDI-PYRENEES REGION, SAYING (French):

"The plan is there to protect citizens. From there, it is has other consequences, and obviously to have a dissuasive effect on those who might be tempted to affect the physical integrity of our citizens."

The coffins of the school shooting victims arrived in Israel on Wednesday for burial the next day.

Paul Chapman, Reuters

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