Toulouse gunman 'to be buried in France'

The gunman who killed seven people in France’s worst terror attacks in years will be buried in a Muslim cemetery near Toulouse where he died in a gunfight with police, religious officials say.

Mohamed Merah’s father wanted him buried in a family plot in Algeria.

But Abdallah Zekri of the French Muslim Council, or CFCM, said Algerian authorities refused for “reasons of public order”.

Zekri had been liaising with Algerian authorities in Toulouse.

Merah’s body was brought to the airport in the city of Toulouse today, and his mother had been expecting to accompany it to Algiers on a flight later in the day.

Merah told police he filmed himself killing three schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in a spate of attacks earlier this month.

Merah, who said he had links to al-Qaida, was shot in the head after a 32-hour stand-off with police last week.

The attacks were the worst terrorist outrage in France since the 1990s and have revived concerns about homegrown Islamist radicals carrying out violence. Merah travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and said he received weapons training there.