Toulouse drama: LIVE updates

GMT1325: Mohammed Merah was arrested in police raid after hours of staying in his apartment in Toulouse – BFM TV

GMT 1320
: Mohammed Merah was radicalized in a Salafist ideological group after making two trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan – Reuters

GMT 1311 : The Kandahar governor’s office has reaffirmed its previous statement saying that

“based on their records, no French citizen named Mohammad Merah was ever detained in Kandahar Province”  – Kandahar governor’s office on Twitter.

GMT 1256: Talking to France 24, the person claiming to be the suspect said his actions were part of a “much larger campaign” and that the country could expect further attacks in Lyon, Marseille and Paris – FRANCE 24’s Senior Editor Ebba Kalondo.

GMT 1240: French police say they are probing the alleged 11-minute phone call made by Merah to the news channel France 24.  “We could not confirm that it is the same man who has been surrounded by police in Toulouse today,” the news channel reported.

GMT 1224: Toulouse gunman wasn’t arrested in Kandahar, he is not the one that escaped from Kandahar prison – governor

GMT1219: Police have re-established contacts with the shootings suspect, who remains in his apartment in Toulouse- AFP

GMT 1205: Merah escaped Afghan jail along with up to 1,000 prisoners, including 400 Taliban insurgents

GMT 1201: Several young French arabs have come down to the scene of the siege to condemn the attacks. “I knew this man when he was a boy, we grew up together in the same neighbourhood, playing football,”said one young man who declined to give his name. “That he went on to carry out these attacks has deeply shocked me. What he did is totally against the teaching of Islam” – The Telegraph correspondentt Fiona Govan reports from the scene.

GMT 1152: The bus that has driven away the residents in the block where Merah is locked in a stand-off with police was marked “special”. Earlier they  spent several hours in fear in their flats – the Telegraph

GMT 1144: Toulouse ­suspect escaped from Kandahar jail in mass Taliban jailbreak in 2008, prison director confirms to BBC

GMT 1126 Police have cut electricity and gas to the apartment block where seige continues – the Telegraph’s Fiona Govan reports from the scene

GMT 1115: “Alleged gunman Mohammed Merah was sentenced to three years in prison but escaped in a mass jailbreak orchestrated by the Taliban,” Ghulam Faruq, the director of Kandahar prison, tells Reuters

GMT 1110

:Toulouse suspect was arrested in Afghanistan for planting bombs, Kandahar prison director tells Reuters

GMT 1050: “It is time for these criminals to stop marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine and to stop pretending to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children who only ask for a decent life,” – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad says. His comments come after the alleged gunman, Mohammed Merah, claimed his string of shootings were in revenge for the deaths of Palestinians – The Telegraph

GMT 1045: Possible cause for evacuation – residents living in the same block as the gunman reportedly begged to be let out. A neighbour trapped in the property, who asked not to be identified, told France Info radio by telephone: “You must ask them to get us out. There are shooting noises and the sound of the man who is talking to him,” – The Telegraph

GMT 1035: The Palestinian diplomatic missions in France “condemn in the strongest possible terms the hateful attack carried out in Toulouse”. “All racist crimes are attacks on humanity in general and on the republic in particular,” – RTÉ

GMT 1030: “Stop using Palestinian cause to justify terror”, Palestinian prime minister says after suspected killer claimed the attack was in revenge for the deaths of Palestinians   – Al Arabiya

GMT 1027: The gunman has told negotiators that he owns a car, a Renault Megane, which is parked at the front of the block, which he claimed also contained weapons. The French Interior minister Claude Guéant said the claims were confirmed by police – The Telegraph

GMT 1023: Gas cut off in block where Toulouse shooting suspect is holed up, neighbour tells me- ITV’s Europe Correspondent on Martin Geissler on Twitter

GMT 1022: French President Sarkozy says France should not give away to discrimination or vengeance after shootings

GMT1020: French President Nicolas Sarkozy says “terrorism will never succeed in fracturing our nation”

GMT 1016“Have a partial view of the building from new vantage point. Police in balaclavas coming and going,” – Irish Times Paris Correspondent Ruadhán Mac Cormaic on Twitter

GMT 1014: French media say Mr Merah’s neighbours in Toulouse are being evacuated as stand-off continues.

GMT 1013: The mother and brother of the suspect in France’s deadly shootings were detained along with the brother’s girlfriend – AlArabiya

GMT 1006: Suspect no longer talking to police and weapons found in car close to surrounded flat, French interior minister says.

GMT 1004: French interior minister says the shooting suspect has been followed for several years by France’s domestic intelligence service­

GMT 1002: Toulouse serial killer called France 24 before police arrived, said he will release video today

GMT 1001: French minister says gunman in Toulouse has stopped talking with police – AFP

GMT 0955: We are starting our live update on the siege of a Toulouse shooting suspect, Mohammed Merah, cornered by French police. The suspected serial killer is responsible for the murders of four people outside a Jewish school.

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