Violent end for shooter

A self-proclaimed al-Qaida militant died in a hail of bullets on Thursday as he jumped out of an apartment window at the end of a 32-hour siege in southern France.

Mohamed Merah, the main suspect in a wave of shootings that killed seven people, had tried to blast his way out of the siege in the city of Toulouse after members of an elite force known as RAID entered his flat.

But Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the 23-year-old had been found dead on the ground in a dramatic end to the lengthy standoff."The killer came out of the bathroom, shooting very violently. The bursts of gunfire were frequent and hard," Gueant said. "A RAID officer who is used to this kind of thing told me that he had never seen such a violent assault.

"RAID officers, of course, tried to protect themselves, to return fire, and then in the end, Mohamed Merah jumped out of the window with a gun in his hand, continuing to fire. He was found dead on the ground."

The exact cause of the death was not immediately clear. Merah's flat was reportedly on the first floor above the ground floor.

Sustained bursts of gunfire had been heard outside the apartment after sources said police were moving "rapidly" to end the siege, but progressing "step by step" through the apartment in fear of booby traps.

Three loud explosions near the apartment were heard shortly before police said the officers had moved in, and an ambulance was then seen passing through a security cordon.

Merah had been holed up since Tuesday night after being tracked down by police as the main suspect in a wave of shootings that killed seven people, including three soldiers, a rabbi and three Jewish children.

President Nicolas Sarkozy congratulated police involved in the operation. He said after the death of Merah was announced that an investigation is under- way to see if the suspect in the series of radical Islam-inspired killings had any accomplices.

"All was done to bring the killer to justice, but it was inconceivable to risk lives ... There have already been too many deaths," Sarkozy said, after a meeting with the defense, justice and foreign ministers.

He announced a new crackdown in France on the spread of terrorist-linked ideologies and activities. Anyone who regularly visits "websites which support terrorism or call for hate or violence will be punished by the law", Sarkozy said.