France

The Toulouse shooting suspect, Mohamed Merah, has died after police stormed his flat, ending a 32-hour siege.

The French interior minister, Claude Gueant, said Merah burst out of his bathroom firing a gun when an elite police squad entered the flat at around 11:30am local time on Thursday. He fired at least 30 rounds of rapid ammunition at police, then jumped out of a window while still shooting at officers. The 23-year-old unemployed panel-beater from Toulouse had been holed up in his flat, surrounded by police, since 3:30am on Wednesday. He had willingly told negotiators who spoke to him by walkie-talkie that he was behind three shootings that have horrified France in recent days: two shootings of soldiers in Toulouse and Montauban and an ambush at the gates of a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday.