Home Tags Posts tagged with "jewish school"
jewish school
French police hunting an Algerian-origin gunman suspected of killing seven people in southern France in two separate attacks, including Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, have surrounded his flat in Toulouse.
The 24-year-old Frenchman from Toulouse has said he belongs to al-Qaeda and acted to “avenge Palestinian children”.
Police are now negotiating with the man, who is still said to be heavily armed but has indicated he may give himself up in the afternoon.
Two police officers were injured in exchanges of fire during the raid and there are reports of a fresh blast.
The suspect’s brother is under arrest.
The suspect’s mother, who is Algerian, has been brought to the scene, but Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who is in attendance, said she had refused to become involved as “she had little influence on him”.
The minister said the suspect had made several visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“He claims to be a mujahideen and to belong to al-Qaeda,” Claude Gueant said.
“He wanted revenge for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to take revenge on the French army because of its foreign interventions.”
The man shot at the door after police arrived, Claude Gueant said, injuring one officer in the knee and “lightly injuring” another.
The man has thrown one gun, a Colt 45, from a window, Claude Gueant said, but it is believed he has other weapons.
The minister said: “Our main concern is to catch him and to catch him under such conditions that he can be brought to justice.”
French police hunting an Algerian-origin gunman suspected of killing seven people in southern France in two separate attacks, including Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, have surrounded his flat in Toulouse
One official told Agence France-Presse news agency the suspect had been “in the sights” of France’s intelligence agency after the first two attacks, after which police had brought in more “crucial evidence”.
French media have linked the suspect to a group called Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride) that was banned by Claude Gueant in January.
They also say the suspect had earlier been arrested in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for unspecified, but not terrorist-related, criminal acts and also has a criminal record in France.
Investigators report the suspect’s first name as Mohamed and that he was identified because of an e-mail message sent to his first victim about buying a scooter.
The message, sent from the suspect’s brother’s account, set up an appointment at which the soldier was killed, sources told AFP.
The man had also sought out a garage in Toulouse to have his Yamaha scooter repainted after the first two attacks. A scooter was used in all the attacks.
The house in Toulouse is a five-storey block of flats and the man is on the ground or first floor.
Police wearing helmets and flak jackets have cordoned off the area and prosecutors say other operations are under way to track down possible accomplices.
The brother was reportedly arrested in another part of Toulouse and a second brother has attended a police station, French media say.
A huge manhunt had been launched after Monday’s shooting at a Jewish school that left four people dead, and the killing of three soldiers in two incidents last week.
The funerals of the rabbi and three children killed on Monday are under way in Jerusalem.
Israeli police said they expected thousands of people to attend.
The attacker gunned down Jonathan Sandler, a 30-year-old rabbi and teacher of religion, his two young sons Arieh and Gabriel and then – at point blank range – the head teacher’s daughter, 7-year-old Myriam Monsonego, in Monday’s attack at a Jewish school in Toulouse.
Their bodies were carried out of Ozar Hatorah school on Tuesday in two black hearses and taken to a nearby airport.
A military jet then flew them to Paris, from where they were placed on a commercial flight to Tel Aviv.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has accompanied the relatives of the dead to the funerals in Jerusalem.
Also on Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to attend a memorial service for the three soldiers killed in the two attacks last week.
All three were of North African descent. Another soldier from the French overseas region of Guadeloupe was left critically ill.
Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right Front National, will attend the memorial service in Montauban.
After Wednesday’s raid took place, Marine Le Pen said the “fundamentalist threat has been underestimated” in France.
[youtube t_H6aJhnYaE]
The man who killed four people at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse had a camera around his neck and may have filmed the scene, France’s Interior Minister Claude Gueant says.
Claude Gueant said the camera was one clue helping police build a profile, as the manhunt intensifies with the area on the highest level of terror alert.
Police have linked the attack to two shootings last week in which three soldiers of North African descent died.
The same gun and the same scooter were used in all the attacks.
French schools held a minute’s silence on Tuesday.
It is the first time in the country’s history that “scarlet alert” has been declared.
The measure enables the authorities to disrupt daily life and implement sweeping security measures. These include mixed police-military patrols and powers to suspend public transport and close schools.
About 250 investigators are pursuing two main lines of inquiry – an Islamist motive or the far right.
Three soldiers expelled from the army in 2008 for neo-Nazi activities have now been cleared of any involvement in the shootings. The three were members of the same parachute regiment in Montauban as the soldiers killed in the attacks on 11 and 15 March.
Earlier, Claurde Gueant said inquiries had taken place “regarding soldiers who were kicked out of the army and who might want to seek revenge”.
Referring to the reported camera, Claude Gueant said: “This is indeed a clue that we have been told about. It’s a video camera worn in a harness on the chest and indeed he was seen, a witness said so, with this device.”
He added he did not know if the man had filmed everything.
The camera “records wide-angle footage that can then be watched on a computer. I feel that that will reinforce the killer’s psychological profile,” the minister said.
He went on to describe the killer as “someone who is very cold, very determined, very in control of himself, very cruel”.
But there was no sign police were near making an arrest.
The shootings took place as parents were taking their children to Ozar Hatorah school on Monday.
A teacher and three children were shot dead, and a teenage boy was seriously injured.
The man who killed four people at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse had a camera around his neck and may have filmed the scene
The man got off a black Yamaha scooter stolen in Toulouse on 6 March and “shot at everybody who was near him, children or adults”, according to local prosecutor Michel Valet.
The dead were Jonathan Sandler, a 30-year-old rabbi and teacher of religion originally from Jerusalem, and his two sons, aged four and five.
The fourth person killed was a seven-year-old girl, Myriam Monsonego, daughter of the head teacher. She died in her father’s arms.
All the dead were dual French-Israeli nationals and will be buried in Israel on Wednesday. The bodies, which had been lying at the school for an overnight vigil, have now been taken to Toulouse airport for repatriation to Israel, via Paris.
Initially, the killer used a 9 mm gun, but when it jammed, he switched to a .45 calibre pistol.
Police say the .45 was the same gun used to kill three soldiers in two separate shootings in Toulouse and nearby Montauban last week. All three were of North African or Caribbean origin.
The mother of a girl at the Toulouse school said she was angry with the authorities, who she said had not taken last week’s incidents seriously enough and had “lost time to look for this man”.
All the candidates in the French presidential election have suspended campaigning.
Toulouse city Mayor Pierre Cohen said the killings in Toulouse and Montauban were “racist, anti-Semitic acts”.
“We can’t say for certain whether this is linked to the presidential election campaign,” Pierre Cohen said.
“As to whether today the electoral climate is a factor, or whether it’s a vendetta or someone with mental problems, we can’t say definitively and we shouldn’t sully the campaign, especially as all the candidates have suspended their campaigns.”
France launched one of the biggest manhunts in recent country’s history after three children and one adult were shot dead at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse.
French police have linked the attack to two shootings last week in which three soldiers of North African descent died.
The same gun and the same scooter were used in all the attacks, but the gunman has not been identified, officials say.
French schools held a minute’s silence on Tuesday. The area is on the highest level of terrorism alert.
It is the first time in the country’s history that “scarlet alert” has been declared.
The measure enables the authorities to disrupt daily life and implement sweeping security measures, including mixed police-military patrols, powers to suspend public transport and close schools.
Guards are being posted outside all faith-based schools, as well as all Jewish and Muslim religious buildings.
France launched one of the biggest manhunts in recent country’s history after three children and one adult were shot dead at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse
About 200 investigators from Paris are pursuing two main lines of inquiry – an Islamist motive or the far right.
However, Interior Minister Claude Gueant told French radio the authorities did not know who the killer was.
“For now, we carry on working. We’re no further than that,” Claude Gueant said.
The minister said “a witness saw a small video camera around the killer’s neck” and the authorities were combing the internet for any possible footage.
Claude Gueant said this was an important clue allowing police to build a psychological profile of the killer, who he described as “clearly very cold, determined and master of his actions”.
But there was no sign police were near making an arrest.
A teacher and three children were shot dead at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, and a 17-year-old boy was seriously injured.
The shootings took place as parents were taking their children to the school on Monday.
“This man alighted from his moped and, as he was outside the school, he shot at everybody who was near him, children or adults,” local prosecutor Michel Valet told journalists.
The scooter – a black Yamaha – was stolen in Toulouse five days before the first shooting. Its number plate was picked up by closed-circuit TV cameras at the school, police sources said.
The dead were Jonathan Sandler, a 30-year-old rabbi and teacher of religion originally from Jerusalem, and his two sons, aged 4 and 5.
The fourth person killed was 7-year-old girl Myriam Monsonego, daughter of the head teacher. She died in her father’s arms.
All the dead were dual French-Israeli nationals and will be buried in Israel, the Israeli foreign ministry said.
The 17-year-old boy was seriously hurt. Initially, the killer used a 9 mm gun, but when it jammed, he switched to a .45 calibre pistol.
Police say the .45 was the same gun used to kill three soldiers in two separate shootings in Toulouse and nearby Montauban last week. All three were of North African or Caribbean origin.
The mother of a girl at the Toulouse school said she was angry with the authorities who she said had not taken last week’s incidents seriously enough and had “lost time to look for this man”.
Since the early 1980s have not been lethal attacks like this in France on Jewish targets. And even then, children were never the primary victims.
All the candidates in the French presidential election have suspended campaigning.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said his campaign would remain suspended until Wednesday at the earliest, when he is due to attend the soldiers’ funerals.
As well as Nicolas Sarkozy, opposition Socialist candidate Francois Hollande visited Toulouse to offer his condolences. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen called on the authorities to do everything to prevent another such attack.
[youtube bt77YAqsJR8]
A teacher and three children have been killed after a gunman opened fire at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse.
A teenage boy has been also seriously injured.
The attacker fled on a scooter, in similar style to the killer of three soldiers in two separate incidents in the same part of France last week.
Police say the same .45 calibre gun was used in all three attacks. The search for the killer is now under way.
Sources close to the investigation say the number plate of the scooter has now been recovered from CCTV cameras at the entrance to the school.
A special service in memory of the victims is taking place at one of the synagogues in Toulouse. There will also be a silent march in Paris at 08:00 p.m.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flew to Toulouse, described the attack as a “national tragedy”. He has called for all schools in France to observe a minute’s silence on Tuesday and vowed to hunt down the killer.
All candidates in the French presidential election have suspended their campaigns.
The grand rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim said he was “horrified” and “stunned” by what had happened. Israel called on the French authorities “to shed full light on this tragedy and bring the perpetrators to justice”.
Monday’s attack happened at around 08:00 a.m., as children and their parents were arriving at the school, in the Jolimont area of the city.
Witnesses said the gunman pulled up on a black scooter and began shooting at an area which serves as the drop-off point for the school’s nursery- and primary-age children.
“This man alighted from his moped and, as he was outside the school, he shot at everybody who was near him, children or adults. Children were chased right into the school,” local prosecutor Michel Valet told journalists.
A teacher and three children have been killed after a gunman opened fire at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse
The gunman is reported to have initially used a 9 mm gun, but when it jammed, he switched to a .45 calibre weapon.
A teacher at the school, believed to be aged 30, and his two children, aged three and six, are reported to have been killed.
The third child killed was aged between 8 and 10 years old and belonged to another teacher at the school, French media report.
A 17-year-old was seriously injured.
As the search for the killer got under way, wailing sirens and the sounds of helicopters overhead could be heard throughout the morning.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said extra security measures will be put in place at all schools and religious buildings.
Some 60 police officers, including anti-terrorist specialists, had already been drafted in to the Toulouse area earlier in the week to help investigate the attacks on the soldiers.
A paratrooper out of uniform was shot dead in a residential area of Toulouse just over a week ago, while two soldiers were killed and a third wounded as they used a cash machine in the town of Montauban, some 29 miles (46 km) away, on Thursday.
All three – of North African and Caribbean origin – were shot by a man on a scooter. A .45 calibre weapon was also used in the Montauban shootings.
Police have said the .45 calibre weapon fired on Monday was the same as the gun used to kill the three soldiers in Toulouse and Montauban.
Socialist leader Francois Hollande also cancelled his campaigning engagements for next month’s presidential election in order to travel to Toulouse.
“You cannot murder children like this on the territory of the Republic [France] without being held to account,” Francois Hollande said.
President Nicolas Sarkozy echoed the comments of other French officials when he said he was “struck by the similarities” of the recent attacks, but he warned against jumping to conclusions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “a loathsome murder of Jews, which included small children” and said an anti-Semitic motive could not be ruled out.
The Vatican also condemned the killings, as did French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who called on the authorities to do everything to prevent another such attack.
Monday’s shooting was the deadliest attack on Jews in France since a shooting in 1982 at a restaurant in Paris, when six people were killed and 22 injured.
[youtube EJ2dDEIIcqo]
Two children and one adult have been killed in a shooting outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, south-west France.
Eyewitnesses said a man opened fire on people waiting at a school drop-off point and then fled on a scooter.
The attack is reported to have happened outside Ozar Hatorah school in the Jolimont area of the city.
The latest incident comes days after three soldiers were shot dead by a man on a scooter in the same part of France.
A 30-year-old paratrooper was gunned down in a residential area of Toulouse just over a week ago, while two soldiers were killed and a third wounded as they used a cashpoint in the town of Montauban, some 29 miles (46km) away, on Thursday.
Two children and one adult have been killed in a shooting outside Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, south-west France
Local residents immediately linked last week’s attacks with the latest shootings.
Christopher Bockman, a freelance journalist in Toulouse, said the soldiers who had been targeted were of ethnic origin and it appeared as if the gunman was deliberately targeting ethnic minorities in the area.
He said the city was in lockdown as police scoured the streets for the culprit.
A French television correspondent at the scene said a man on a black scooter opened fire, killing three people – including two children – and badly wounding several others.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant has ordered security to be tightened around all French Jewish schools and is due to arrive in the city later in the morning, the AFP news agency reports.
