Shootings

Paris premiere of new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises is cancelled after at least 12 people died in a shooting at a midnight screening in the US.

Police hunt a serial killer after a series of murders in suburban Paris in which the victims were shot with the same arm by a man on a motorbike.

A brother of Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah denies helping him mount his deadly attacks in Toulouse and Montauban, a French police source said.

The initial information about Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah suggests that his is a story of modern France. While the Presidency and certain media commentators would like to stop all debate about what this event means for our society, the precise opposite is true. Like the earlier case of Algerian-born Khaled Kelkal, who was shot dead by gendarmes in 1995 after being implicated in a wave of bomb attacks in France, the story of Mohamed Merah holds up a mirror to society. And, says Mediapart editor François Bonnet, it raises vital questions for presidential candidates who seek to provide an alternative to the current presidency.

The role of the authorities in hunting the gunman who carried out the atrocities in Toulouse and Montauban in south-west France has come under the microscope since the main suspect was shot dead in a siege at his flat. Questions have been raised about how long it took to locate Mohamed Merah after the first attack, and to what extent the French intelligence agency had been monitoring him before the murders took place. Michel Deléan reports.

The gunman suspected of shooting dead seven people said his only regret was not having been able to carry out his plans for more killings.

Schools throughout France observed a minute's silence at 11.00am  in memory of the three children and a teacher shot dead at a Jewish school.

Mystery surrounds separate but linked shootings in SW France targetting French soldiers that have three dead and one critically wounded.