Serial shooter to surrender: French minister

PARIS - A gunman suspected of killing four including three children outside a Jewish school would surrender this afternoon after being under siege by French police, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said on Wednesday.

Police and firefighters block a street during a raid on a house to arrest suspects in the killings of three children and a rabbi on Monday at a Jewish school, in Toulouse March 21, 2012. About 300 police, some in bullet-proof body armour, cordoned off an area surrounding an apartment in a Toulouse neighbourhood in southwestern France, where the 24-year-old Muslim man was holed up. Shots were heard in the early hours of the morning, and police said three officers had been slightly wounded.[Photo/Agengcies]

"We are certain it's him who committed the series of shootings in March. He is negotiating with the police and he said, I don't know if he said the truth, to turn himself this afternoon," Gueant told BMTV channel.

Mohammed Merah, a French man of Algerian origin claimed links with al Qaeda, threw a pistol from the window of the house in exchange for a "communication device." He still has an Uzi machine gun, a Kalashnikov assault rifle and other weapons.

The 24-year-old man, also suspected of killing three French paratroops last week, told negotiators he acted to punish France's army for its foreign interventions and to revenge the killing of Palestinian children, Gueant added.

The minister said the "extremely determined" suspect had been in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was under surveillance of central management of domestic intelligence for a long time on links with salafism commitment.

The suspect is surrounded by French police in an apartment in Toulouse from early Wednesday morning. Police reportedly tracked down the suspect via IP address of his brother's computer which was used by the suspect to hunt for the victim of March 11.

Gueant said police want to catch the suspect alive. He told local BFM television: "Our main concern is to catch him and to catch him under such conditions that he can be brought to justice."

Negociations between the police and the suspect is still ongoing in Toulous.