Shots, blasts heard near suspected French gunman’s house

Shots and a blast were heard on Thursday near a besieged apartment building in France’s Toulouse, where a suspect in the al-Qaeda-linked shootings that left seven dead has been holed up since Wednesday morning, the iTele channel said. “We heard three shots and one blast,” a TV correspondent said, adding that according to his information the suspect is yet to be detained. The announcement came shortly after police denied media rumors that an operation was underway to detain 24-year-old Mohamed Merah, who claimed responsibility for killing seven people, including three children, on Monday and last week. He said he intended to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest the French army’s involvement in Afghanistan. An operation to detain him began at 6:20 Moscow time [2:20 GMT], but Merah injured three police officers and holed up in his apartment. In the early hours of Thursday electricity supplies were cut to the building and three blasts were heard in the area.