Shooting suspect besieged by police

French police officers have exchanged gunfire and are negotiating with a man who claims connections to al-Qaida and is suspected of killing three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in three attacks.

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said two police officers have been injured in the raid on a house in the southern city of Toulouse.

Mr Gueant said the man is 24 years old, of French nationality and says that “he belongs to al-Qaida”.

He said the suspect “wants to take revenge for Palestinian children” killed in the Middle East, and is angry at the French military for its operations abroad.

Mr Gueant said the man’s brother was arrested.