A gunman claiming to be an al-Qaeda militant took four hostages at a bank in the French city Toulouse. The place is close to where serial killer Mohamed Merah lived and was shot dead by police three months ago.
The gunman came to the bank in central Toulouse around 11 am and took 4 hostages – the bank director and three other people. The officials said a single shot has been fired but no detriments have been reported till now. A police official in Toulouse has told that one of the hostages – a woman, has been exhausted.
Michel Valet – Toulouse prosecutor said : ‘ We are taking measures so we can start a dialogue with the hostage taker ‘. He said at the scene where police have set up a 200-metre cordon around the French bank.
Parents of pupils at a neighboring school were sent text messages telling them to pick up their children and rapid-intervention police units were dispatched from southern French cities Bordeaux and Marseille.
Tragedy in Toulouse, al-Qaeda militant takes four hostages at French bank
In the southern Toulouse, about 500 thousand people have lived in fear while police hunted the killer before he was known as Mohamed Merah. His neighbourhood self-proclaimed al-Qaeda militant has struggled to shake off the imprint of being connected with him. The gunman identity is still unclear.
French authorities portrayed Mohamed Merah as a radical who had trained in two arabic countries : Afghanistan and Pakistan. The officials said at the time that they found no operational ties between Merah and Al-Qaeda group though his maintain.
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