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| Blasts at scene of Toulouse gunman siege | Blasts at scene of Toulouse gunman siege |
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| Three explosions have been heard at a block of flats in the French city of Toulouse where a man suspected of killing seven people has been holed up since Wednesday morning. | |
| The interior ministry could not confirm an assault on the flat had begun. | |
| The blasts were accompanied by flashes of orange light. | The blasts were accompanied by flashes of orange light. |
| Mohammed Merah, 23, is suspected of killing four people at a Jewish school last Monday and three soldiers in two attacks last week. | Mohammed Merah, 23, is suspected of killing four people at a Jewish school last Monday and three soldiers in two attacks last week. |
| The blasts sent shockwaves around the quiet residential streets around the building, reports the BBC's Christian Fraser in Toulouse. | |
| Earlier, deputy mayor Jean-Pierre Havrin told local media that "negotiations have finished and the assault has begun". | |
| However, sources from the French interior ministry have since been quoted as saying said this was beginning of an operation to apply more pressure on Merah. | |
| Police had been negotiating with Merah, said to be heavily armed, but had not convinced him to surrender. | Police had been negotiating with Merah, said to be heavily armed, but had not convinced him to surrender. |
| Police surrounded Merah's block after two officers were shot at when they tried to get into his flat early on Wednesday morning. | Police surrounded Merah's block after two officers were shot at when they tried to get into his flat early on Wednesday morning. |
| Officials say he is heavily armed with a Kalashnikov high-velocity rifle, a mini-Uzi 9mm machine pistol, several handguns and possibly grenades. | Officials say he is heavily armed with a Kalashnikov high-velocity rifle, a mini-Uzi 9mm machine pistol, several handguns and possibly grenades. |
| Street lights had been switched off in the vicinity of the building on Wednesday evening. | |
| The five-storey block of flats has been evacuated, and police also moved residents from nearby buildings. | |
| Elsewhere in the city, police are hunting for accomplices and have detained several members of Merah's family. | |
| His mother was taken to the scene on Wednesday in the hope that she could persuade him to surrender, but she told police that she had no influence over her son. | |
| previous slide next slide No regret | |
| Anti-terror chief Francois Molins said on Wednesday that Merah planned to kill again. | |
| "If he's telling the truth, he would have left his house this morning and he would have once again killed any soldier that he came across," he said. | |
| Mr Molins said the suspect had expressed no regret for the killings, but had said he wanted to kill more people and "bring France to its knees". | |
| Merah has said he acted to "avenge Palestinian children" and said he would give himself up. | |
| Merah claimed to have received al-Qaeda training in Pakistan's Waziristan area, and also said he had been to Afghanistan. | |
| His activities in Afghanistan are still unclear. | |
| Afghan officials told the BBC he had been jailed in Kandahar for planting bombs in 2007, but escaped in a Taliban-led break-out in 2008. | |
| Other Afghan sources cast doubt on the claims, saying the man jailed in Kandahar might have been a different person with the same name. | |
| The killings took place in and around Toulouse in three separate incidents earlier this month. | |
| On 11 March, a soldier was shot and killed while waiting to see a man about selling his motorcycle. | |
| Days later, two soldiers were shot and killed and a third was wounded while waiting at a cash machine. | |
| Then earlier this week, three children and an adult were shot and killed outside a Jewish school. | |
| The four Jewish victims were buried in an emotional funeral in Jerusalem on Wednesday. | |
| Also on Wednesday, President Nicolas Sarkozy attended a memorial for the three murdered soldiers at a military base in Montauban near Toulouse. |