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After four murders, fears grow in Paris of serial killer

Apr 7, 2012, 13:41 GMT

Paris - Fears were growing in Paris Saturday that a serial killer was on the loose, after the murders of four people all by the same gun.

All the killings have taken place since November, with the most recent being a woman murdered on Thursday.

Police said more than 100 officers were now working on the case, BFM TV reported, after all four victims were killed with the same 7.65mm gun.

However, police have so far found no link between any of the victims.

Interior Minister Claude Gueart said the authorities were working flat out on the investigation.

The victims - two men and two women - were all murdered in and around the French capital.

Prosecutor Marie-Suzanne Le Queau told a press conference that the method of attack was not identical in all four cases. In at least one case, the gunman fled on a blue-and-white motorbike.

The most recent victim was a 47-year-old woman, shot at her high-rise apartment block in the suburb of Grigny.

She was shot by the same weapon that killed a 35-year-old laboratory worker in neighbouring Juvisy-sur-Orge on November 27, 2011 - the first of the killings. The woman was shot seven times.

The victim's former lover was arrested, and reportedly even confessed to the crime. However, the killings continued.

On February 22, in the same garage where the lab worker died, a 52-year-old neighbour was shot dead.

Then on March 17, an 81-year-old bank employee was killed with a single shot to the head.

France is still recovering from the shock of the March killings in and around Tolouse, when self-declared Islamist Mohamed Merah shot dead seven people, including three children at a Jewish school, before police shot him after a siege at his apartment.

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