FRANCE: Residents living near where Mohamed Merah was under siege are still in shock and looking for answers to how their young neighbour could kill seven people in cold-blood.

Record ID: 861798

  • Title: FRANCE: Residents living near where Mohamed Merah was under siege are still in shock and looking for answers to how their young neighbour could kill seven people in cold-blood.
  • Date: 24th March 2012
  • Summary: TOULOUSE, FRANCE (MARCH 23, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF STREET WHERE POLICE SIEGE TOOK PLACE POLICE ARRIVING ON MOTORBIKES FACADE OF MERAH'S FLAT SHUTTERS ON MOHAMED MERAH'S APARTMENT WITH BULLET IMPACTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) NEIGHBOUR MRS. CLOSE SAYING: "I must have met him because I live in the area. It's hard because he is a monster but he is also a 23-year old who was shot dead."
  • Embargoed: 8th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA80S4KGS4RACJV404LXBJ9F5L0
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Residents of the neighbourhood in Toulouse, taken over by a police siege for almost two days, said on Friday (March 23) they were still coming to terms with recent events in their community, and woke up to a continuing heavy police presence in the area.
    A 23-year-old gunman who said al Qaeda inspired him to kill seven people in France died in a hail of bullets on Thursday as he scrambled out of a ground-floor window during a gunbattle with elite police commandos.
    Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, died from a gunshot wound to his head at the end of a long stand-off with police at his apartment in southern France and after confessing to killing three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi.
    Merah's former neighbours said they were still in shock about having shared their community with a man capable of killing seven innocent victims, including three children.
    "I must have met him because I live in the area. It's hard because he is a monster but he is also a 23-year old who was shot dead," said one neighbour Mrs Close.
    "Everything is back to normal but it was a bad moment to go through," said another local resident, 14-year old Clemence.
    A day after the 30-hour siege ended, residents said they were still trying to come to terms with the events and all newspapers carried headlines on the siege.
    "What we need to know is how a young guy like him got to be a murderer," said Mr. Sylvestre.
    "It was really surprising to have this happen in a quiet neighbourhood like this, it was war," said a newspaper vendor Nicolas Peloane.
    Two police commandos were injured in the operation - a dramatic climax to a siege in a suburb of the city of Toulouse which riveted the world after the killings shook France a month before a presidential election
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