Gunman died in hail of bullets after raid

A 23-year-old gunman who said al-Qaida inspired him to kill seven people died in a hail of bullets as he scrambled out of a ground-floor window during a gun battle with police commandos.

Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, died from a gunshot wound to his head yesterday at the end of a 30-hour standoff with police at his apartment in a suburb of Toulouse in southern France and after confessing to killing three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi.

He was firing at police from a Colt 45 pistol as he climbed through a window onto a veranda and toppled to the ground five feet below, according to police.