Fears French gunman could strike again
French police stepped up the search
today for a gunman who filmed his carnage as he shot dead three children and a
rabbi at a Jewish school, fearing the killer could strike again.Officials
believe the scooter-riding gunman is a trained marksman with
"extremist" views who may also be responsible for last week's
shootings of three soldiers of North African origin.
France's President Nicolas
Sarkozy has said racism appeared to be the motivation for yesterday's school
attack, which came just five weeks before the first round of the presidential
election.Racist and anti-Semitic attacks are not uncommon in France.Immigrants
and Islam have been major themes of the campaign as Sarkozy tries to win over
the voters of far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Analysts say the shootings could
transform the election debate and possibly tone down populist rhetoric."We
will track down this monster," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said of the
killer on France 2 television. "We will find him, bring him to justice and punish
him."France is home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe
and has a history of attacks on both groups, but yesterday's shooting was the
most deadly anti-Semitic attack on French soil in nearly 30 years.The police tightened
security at religious sites, raised the terror alert in the southern town to
the highest possible level and talked to gun clubs in an effort to track down
the killer."It would be surprising if he stops now," one police
officer involved in the investigation said.Surveillance tapes at the school
showed the gunman recorded his shooting spree with a small video camera around
his neck.He is also the prime suspect in the killing of three paratroopers in
two separate shootings last week in Toulouse and the nearby town of
Montauban."This shows a profile of the murderer as someone who is very
cold, very determined, with precise gestures, and therefore very cruel,"
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.In each attack, the gunman arrived on a
stolen Yamaha scooter and used a Colt 45 handgun. His face was hidden by a
motorcycle helmet during the attacks.The three dead soldiers included two
members of the 17th parachute regiment.
Police have interviewed three former
soldiers expelled from the regiment for neo-Nazi activity in 2008, but a police
source said they had been ruled out of the investigation.At the entrance of the
Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, a five-floor brick building in a leafy
residential neighbourhood, residents and parents left floral tributes and
candles in memory of the victims.A child who survived the attack spoke of his
sheer terror as the shots rang out through the school."We were getting
ready for prayers when the principal stormed in and screamed that there was a
shooting. I panicked and fled to the old canteen and heard the shots, but saw
nothing," an 11-year old boy told France Info radio."I
thought he was going to come in any minute and finish us all. Then I waited and
waited and then my daddy came to get me."Schools all over France observed a minute of
silence."This has happened in Toulouse, in a religious
school with children from Jewish families, but it could have happened here. The
same killer could have come here, these children are exactly like you,"
Sarkozy said, attending the silent vigil in a Paris secondary school.The bodies
of the four victims, who hold dual French-Israeli nationality, will be
repatriated to Israel on Tuesday night, Joel Mergui,the head of a Jewish
religious organisation, said.The Israeli embassy identified the victims as
Jonathan Sandler, 30, his children Gabriel and Arieh, aged four and five, and
Myriam Monsonego, seven.
