Conflicting reports are coming in about the reported arrest of the gunman suspected of murdering three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in France.
Earlier BFM TV reported that Mohammad Merah, 23, was arrested during a raid on his home.
Interior Minister Claude Guéant now denies that the suspect has been arrested.
Toulouse Deputy Mayor Jean-Pierre Havrin also denies the report. “I’m standing 50 meters from the [besieged] apartment,” he told Reuters. “Any nearer and I would actually be inside with him. This report about him being arrested is absolute nonsense.”
Merah had been surrounded by police for several hours, armed with a Kalashnikov and Uzi automatic pistol. Three police officers were wounded in a dawn raid on the apartment. Police claimed they wanted him alive, so he can be brought to justice, but insisted they would storm the building should he refuse to surrender.
Several hours after the initial raid, the suspect exchanged one of his guns for a cell phone to hold talks with police. He later interrupted negotiations.
The suspect is a French national of Algerian descent, who is believed to have connections with Al-Qaeda. This person is also thought to be behind the killing of three French soldiers of North African origin last week.
Merah told police on the phone he had two reasons for shooting each of his seven victims: “to take revenge for Palestinian children killed in the Middle East” and “to attack the French army because of its foreign interventions.” He also confirmed his connections with Al-Qaeda, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.
Before the recent events, Merah had been tracked for several years by the intelligence service, but “nothing that might give rise to suspicions that he was preparing a criminal act was ever apparent,” the French Interior Ministry said.
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