Europe News

French police conduct raid linked to string of killings

Mar 21, 2012, 4:46 GMT

Paris - French police were conducting a raid before dawn Wednesday in Toulouse that was linked to the killings of seven people, including three children at a Jewish school, a news report said.

A 24-year-old man was holed up in a house in the south-western city not far from the school where one teacher and three children were killed in Monday's shooting, the AFP news agency reported, citing a source close to the investigation who requested anonymity.

Two officers of the police special operations branch had been lightly injured, the report said.

The suspect was already under scrutiny by authorities after three French soldiers were killed in Toulouse and the nearby city of Montauban on March 11 and March 15, AFP reported, quoting the source.

The soldiers were of North African and West Indian origin.

In his conversation with security forces, the man had claimed to have links with al-Qaeda, and said he had spent time in the restive area on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the report said.

Read more about France Crime