School killer jumps to death in hail of bullets

 
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Peter Allen22 March 2012

Serial killer Mohammed Merah died in a hail of bullets today as he jumped out of a window “shooting madly” at police trying to take him alive.

The 23-year-old’s council flat in Toulouse, south-west France, was stormed by an armed tactical unit who triggered clouds of heavy smoke from stun grenades. Merah appeared from a bathroom door “shooting madly at everyone”, said Interior Minister Claude Gueant. He made it to a window, still firing as he jumped.

Mr Gueant said: “We sent in special cameras to see where he was but we could not find him. It was when we were able to locate him in the bathroom that he came out shooting madly at everybody.

“The police had never seen anything like this kind of violence and the Raid police had to protect themselves. He was found dead on the ground.”

Two officers were injured — one in the foot and another was in a state of extreme shock.

Police decided to enter the flat even though he had earlier told them: “I want to die with my weapons in my hand.”

Sustained gunfire — 300 rounds were fired in a five-minute exchange — and loud explosions echoed around the neighbourhood from 11.30am. Dozens of emergency workers standing beside ambulances and fire engines covered their ears.

Many thought that explosions heard overnight had bought the 32-hour stake-out to an end but it was an attempt to “intimidate” Merah by blowing out doors and walls.

Mr Gueant said before the raid: “We have one priority: to take him alive so that he can surrender to face justice.” Merah spent most of yesterday negotiating with officers, either by shouting at them, or through a communications link which had been thrown into his flat.

He had thrown a Colt .45 pistol out of the window, but was said to have an Uzi sub-machinegun, a Kalashnikov and other arms.

Merah’s flat in north Toulouse is a few miles from the Ozar Hatorah School where on Monday he killed Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, his two young sons, Gavriel, three, Aryeh, six, and headmaster’s daughter Miriam Monsonego, eight. Last week he shot three soldiers, of North African or Caribbean origin, in the same area.

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