The Local France

AS IT HAPPENED: Over 120 dead in Paris attacks

Fri, 13 Nov 2015 23:38:22 +0100

At least 120 people were killed and many more were injured after shootings and a suicide bombing in Paris on Friday night. The Local live blogged the key moments from the night.

French spooks cut Merah monitoring: leaks

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:48:00 +0200

French intelligence services curtailed supervision of Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah a few months before his shooting spree in Toulouse despite his known links to extremists, according to leaked documents.

Toulouse gunman 'was being watched'

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:54:00 +0200

French security services had watched Toulouse shooter Mohamed Merah since the end of 2009 and judged his behaviour "worrying" in late 2011, according to declassified documents seen by AFP.

Gunman's dad: my son was murdered

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 18:45:00 +0200

The father of Al-Qaeda-inspired gunman Mohamed Merah, who was shot dead by French police in March after going on a killing spree, has filed a murder suit in Paris, his lawyers said Monday.

Man charged for Paris killing spree

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:42:00 +0200

The main suspect in the murders of four people in the southern suburbs of Paris over five months was charged with murder on Monday and is being held in custody, prosecutors said.

Toulouse father: 'my son was liquidated'

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:08:00 +0200

The lawyer for the father of the man police shot dead in Toulouse claims to have video proof that Mohamed Merah was needlessly killed.

French police swoop on 'Islamic extremists'

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:57:00 +0200

French police arrested about 20 suspected Islamists in dawn raids on Friday, most of them in the hometown of an extremist who was shot dead by police last week after a killing spree.

France attacks 'a little' like 9/11: Sarkozy

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:53:00 +0200

President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that France was shaken by an Islamist gunman's shootings in and around Toulouse, likening the trauma from the murders to that of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Algeria refuses to take gunman Merah's body

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:46:00 +0200

The Islamist gunman branded a "monster" by President Nicolas Sarkozy will be buried in France because Algeria refused to let him be buried there, a Muslim official said Thursday.

Al-Jazeera 'won't air' French killer's videos

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:24:00 +0200

Al-Jazeera news channel said on Tuesday it has decided not to air a video shot by an Islamist extremist of shootings in southwest France that it had received by mail.

Police seek 'third man' over Toulouse shootings

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:22:00 +0200

French police said Tuesday they were seeking a third person who may have been involved in the theft of the scooter that the Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah used to carry out seven murders.

Al-Jazeera 'could broadcast' killer's videos

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:23:00 +0200

The Al-Jazeera news network has not ruled out broadcasting videos shot by an Islamist extremist killer in southern France and will decide Tuesday, its Paris bureau chief said.

French police: we have copies of gunman videos

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:49:00 +0200

French police said on Monday they had copies of videos shot by an Islamist extremist killer during a series of shootings in and near the southern city of Toulouse that shocked the country.

Facebook removes Merah tribute page

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:57:00 +0100

Facebook on Thursday removed a page that paid homage to the young Frenchman who died in a shootout with police after killing seven people, officials said.

Gunman 'could not have been arrested' - PM

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:27:00 +0100

French police had no grounds to detain a self-proclaimed Islamic extremist before he went on a killing spree, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Friday.

Profile: how petty criminal turned into suspected child killer

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:30:00 +0100

Suspected jihadi serial killer Mohamed Merah is a 23-year-old French petty criminal of Algerian origin who spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan and claims to be an Al-Qaeda militant.

'Gunman': I'll post videos of shooting on web

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:34:00 +0100

French police said Wednesday they were probing a call made to a news channel by a man claiming to be the killer of seven people, who said footage of the attacks would soon be on the Internet.

Police link scooter to three shootings

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:38:00 +0100

The same stolen scooter was used in three deadly shooting incidents in eight days in France, a police source said Monday after three children and a teacher were killed at a Jewish school.