'Hostages held' in Toulouse bank

20 Jun 2012, 9:04 pm   -   Source: AFP

A man claiming to be an Al-Qaeda militant has taken four hostages at a bank in the southern French city Toulouse and wants to negotiate with an elite police unit, police say.

A man claiming to be an Al-Qaeda militant has taken four hostages at a bank in the southern French city Toulouse and wants to negotiate with an elite police unit, police say.
  
The man entered the bank around 0900 GMT, fired a gun and wants to talk to the RAID police unit that shot dead Al-Qaeda-inspired gunman Mohamed Merah in March at his flat, which is in the same neighbourhood as the bank.
  
Merah was killed at the end of a 32-hour siege of his flat after he shot dead seven people -- three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse -- in a wave of killings that shocked the country.
  
The 23-year-old who claimed to be an Al-Qaeda militant filmed himself carrying out the attacks and reportedly confessed to police before he was shot dead.
  

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