French Shooter Stand-Off

Assault Begins At French Gunman Siege Site

Explosions have been heard outside an apartment in Toulouse where French police have begun an assault to end a 20-hour siege involving a gunman accused of killing seven people.

Self-declared al Qaeda militant Mohammed Merah has been holed up in the ground floor property since the early hours of Wednesday.

Negotiations have continued all day but Merah reportedly said he will surrender at night "to be more discreet".

But the deputy mayor of Toulouse confirmed an assault on the building had begun.

An Interior Ministry official said Merah had gone back on his previous decision to turn himself in and said police had blown up the shutters outside the apartment window to pressure him to change his mind.

They denied an assault had started.

Mohammed Merah as shown in undated video aired on France 2 tv channel

Explosions rocked the district of the southwestern city and orange flashes lit up the sky.

Reuters new agency cites a police source as saying the blasts blew open the door of Merah's apartment but local French media reported that the wanted man is still inside.

There were no sounds suggesting an exchange of fire following the blasts. Merah is thought to be armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Mini-Uzi submachine pistol and a collection of handguns.

Street lighting in the area was turned off earlier as officers continued to surround the apartment block.

French police launch assault on besieged gunman

TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - French police launched an assault late on Wednesday on an apartment where a gunman suspected of killing seven people in the name of al Qaeda was holed up, officials said.

Three loud blasts were heard at the site in the southwest city of Toulouse just before midnight, which blew open the door of the apartment where the gunman had been holed up since 3 a.m. (10.00 p.m. EDT), a police source said.

"I confirm that the assault has started," a police source told Reuters. The deputy mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Pierre Havrin, confirmed that negotiations had ended and the assault had begun.

Police had been trying to get 24-year-old Mohamed Merah to turn himself over after he fired through the door at them while they tried to storm his apartment in the suburbs of Toulouse in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

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