Toulouse siege enters second day
The blasts were filmed by journalists broadcasting near the suspected gunman's home
The police siege of a building in the southern French city of Toulouse, where a man suspected of killing seven people is holed up, has entered a second day.
Police set off explosions at regular intervals overnight to increase the pressure on Mohammed Merah.
The heavily armed 23-year-old had earlier indicated he would surrender.
Merah is suspected of killing four people at a Jewish school last Monday and three soldiers in two attacks last week.
The first blasts, late on Wednesday, prompted deputy mayor Jean-Pierre Havrin to tell local media that "negotiations have finished and the assault has begun".
However, sources from the French interior ministry later said this was only the beginning of an operation to put pressure on Merah.
Mohammed Merah
- French citizen of Algerian extraction, aged 23
- Has criminal record in France for non-terrorist crimes
- Has described himself as an al-Qaeda member and has spent time in Afghanistan and Pakistan
"They [the blasts] were moves to intimidate the gunman who seems to have changed his mind and does not want to surrender," interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told Reuters.
Didier Martinez of the SGP police union told Associated Press the siege could go on for hours as police were counting on Merah weakening with fatigue.
Anti-terror chief Francois Molins said: "He's explained that he's not suicidal, he doesn't have the soul of a martyr and he prefers to kill but to stay alive himself."
However, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said Merah had indicated he wanted "to die weapons in hand".
Mr Gueant also said there had been no contact with Merah overnight and there was no certainty he was still alive.
The BBC's Richard Galpin, at the scene, says the delay may be because the authorities feel there is still a chance of a peaceful resolution or it may be because they are wary of the large amount of weapons Merah has.
Officials say he armed with a Kalashnikov high-velocity rifle, a mini-Uzi 9mm machine pistol, several handguns and possibly grenades.
Street lights were switched off in the vicinity of the building on Wednesday evening.
The five-storey block of flats has been evacuated, and police also moved residents from nearby buildings.
Police had surrounded Merah's flat after two officers were shot at when they tried to get into his flat early on Wednesday morning.
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Hunt for French killer
France has seen an unprecedented security clampdown after a lone gunman killed seven people, including three children, in three separate attacks in the south-west of the country.
Police tracked down the main suspect after investigating the movements of a stolen scooter used by the killer to make his escape following shootings in Toulouse and nearby Montauban.
6 March: Scooter stolen
A Yamaha T-Max scooter that proves key to tracking down Mohammad Merah, the main suspect in the targeted killings, is stolen.
Police say Merah or an associate later contacted a garage to find out how to switch off the stolen bike's GPS tracker device.
After the attacks began, inquiries were also made about how the bike could be resprayed, and suspicious garage staff contacted the police.
11 March: Gunman strikes
French soldier Imad Ibn-Ziaten is lured to a meeting in Toulouse after advertising his motorbike for sale.
The suspect apparently uses his brother's email address to arrange a meeting with Sgt Ibn-Ziaten. The paratrooper, who is not in uniform, is shot dead at close range.
Police say the weapons used to kill the soldier were the same as those employed in the subsequent attacks in Montauban and Toulouse.
15 March: Double killing
Four days later, the gunman strikes again using the same weapons and riding the stolen scooter.
The assassin targets paratroopers in the nearby garrison town of Montauban. Abel Chennouf (left) and Mohamed Legouade are killed as they wait by a cash machine. A third soldier is critically injured.
Police say the killer is a meticulous operator. The clip for the gun used in all three attacks has no fingerprints or DNA on it.
19 March: Jewish children killed
Another four days pass before the killer targets a Jewish school in Toulouse.
Arriving on the scooter, the killer guns down Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two sons Gabriel (aged four) and Arieh (five), and seven-year-old Myriam Monsonego at close range.
Reports suggest the killer wore a video camera, apparently to record his actions. A crash helmet and visor hid his identity.
21 March: Suspect cornered
An email address used by the suspected killer leads the police to this apartment block in Toulouse.
A raid on the apartment on the first floor is launched in the early hours of the morning. Police officers who knock on the door of an apartment are fired on - but not seriously hurt.
The heavily armed gunman gives up one of his guns in exchange for a mobile phone to speak to police. Residents in the apartment block are evacuated from the area.
The stand-off continues.
Elsewhere in the city, police are hunting for accomplices and have detained several members of Merah's family.
His mother was taken to the scene on Wednesday in the hope that she could persuade him to surrender, but she told police that she had no influence over her son.
Mr Molins said on Wednesday that Merah had planned to kill again.
"If he's telling the truth, he would have left his house this morning and he would have once again killed any soldier that he came across," he said.
Nicolas Sarkozy: "The soldiers were targeted because they were part of the French army"
Mr Molins said the suspect had expressed no regret for the killings, but had said he wanted to kill more people and "bring France to its knees".
Merah has said he acted to "avenge Palestinian children" and said he would give himself up.
Merah claimed to have received al-Qaeda training in Pakistan's Waziristan area, and also said he had been to Afghanistan.
Christian Etelin, a lawyer who has previously acted for Merah, said his client had violent tendencies.
"There was his religious engagement, an increasing hatred against the values of a democratic society and a desire to impose what he believes is truth," Mr Etelin said.
He also denied earlier reports that Merah had been jailed for explosives offensives in Afghanistan, saying his client was in jail in France for robbery with violence at the time - from December 2007 to September 2009.
Emotional funeralThe killings took place in and around Toulouse in three separate incidents earlier this month.
On 11 March, a soldier was shot and killed while waiting to see a man about selling his motorcycle.
Days later, two soldiers were shot and killed and a third was wounded while waiting at a cash machine.
Then earlier this week, three children and an adult were shot and killed outside a Jewish school.
The four Jewish victims were buried in an emotional funeral in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, President Nicolas Sarkozy attended a memorial for the three murdered soldiers at a military base in Montauban near Toulouse.
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