5 Minutes. 300 Bullets.



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

The
French interior minister, Claude Guéant, said Merah burst out of his
bathroom firing a gun when an elite police squad entered the flat at
around 11:30am. He fired at least 30 rounds of rapid ammunition at
police, then jumped out of a window while still shooting at officers. He
was shot by a sniper and appeared to have died from a bullet to the
head.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. He had claimed allegiance to al-Qaida.The suspect had
promised to give himself up to police before midnight on Wednesday night
but then said surrendering was against his principles. His last
communication with officers surrounding the block was just after
midnight. They blew off the window shutters with a grenade explosion,
after which two shots were heard. Then there was silence until 11am.
Officers did not know if Merah was dead or alive as he did not respond
to grenades and a series of explosions on Thursday morning.At
10:30am the decision was taken to enter the flat. Merah appeared from
the bathroom wearing a bulletproof vest and brandishing guns.After
sustained gunfire – Guéant said one officer told him he had never seen
"such an intense and violent assault" – there was silence."Video
equipment was deployed to inspect different rooms in the flat," Guéant
said. "No sign of him was found. But as the equipment inspected the
bathroom, Mohamed Merah burst out, apparently armed with several
weapons, and fired with extreme ferocity … Raid officers returned fire.
The snipers opposite attempted to neutralise him. In the end, Mohamed
Merah jumped through a window, gun in hand, and carried on firing. He
was found dead on the ground."