3 blasts heard outside terror suspect's hideout in France

A report says three blasts have been heard in the suburbs of Toulouse outside the hideout of a gunman suspected of killing seven people in the southwestern France city. The explosions occurred just before midnight on Wednesday after the police started a raid on the apartment where the gunman had been holed up since 03:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT), Reuters reported. The blasts also ripped open the door of the apartment, a police source was quoted as saying. The deputy mayor of Toulouse confirmed that negotiations had ended. The raid came after hours-long unsuccessful efforts to talk the suspect, identified as a 24-year-old Mohamed Merah, into turning himself over. The gunman fired through the door at the police forces as they tried to storm his apartment in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Merah is suspected killing a rabbi and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons in a shooting spree at a Jewish school in Toulouse. The 10-year-old daughter of the school’s principal was killed in the incident that left a fifth person injured. The French police linked the attack to two other shootings last week, in which three soldiers of North African or Caribbean descent were killed. Police sources say a same gun has been used in all the attacks and that the modus operandi of the killings indicates military training.