School Shooting: Hunt For Gunman And Motive

Scores of French police and counter terrorism experts are hunting a gunman who shot dead four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse and appears to have killed three French paratroopers in the last fortnight.

Although officials have not yet formally confirmed a connection between the apparently anti-Semitic attack and the other murders, strong similarities are obvious.

In each case, the killer escaped on a black motorcycle, which has been identified as a black Yamaha T-Max - a fast 500cc "super scooter".

Police outside the Jewish school in Toulouse where four died

And now judicial sources say the same large calibre pistol was used in all three shootings.

The gunman initially used a 9mm pistol at the private school in the city on Monday, before switching to a .45 calibre hand gun when the first weapon jammed.

The man who shot three paratroopers in Montauban, 30 miles north of Toulouse, on March 15 reportedly briefly lifted his visor revealing a facial tattoo.

This is the most dramatic of the otherwise nondescript portraits of the killer who has also been described as "pretty fat", about 5ft 10 and dressed in black.

A motive for the series of attacks remains as obscure as the shooter's appearance.

One of the victims is reported to be a Catholic of North African descent, while the others are of Caribbean or Jewish origin - which could mean racism is the driving factor.

It is also possible it is a "lone wolf" who has launched a radical Islamist campaign, encouraged by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula through publications like Inspire magazine.

A teacher and his two sons were among the victims

Al Qaeda-inspired individuals would see North Africans, being mostly Muslims, who serve in the French army and could be deployed to Afghanistan, as traitors and legitimate targets.

Jewish cultural centres have often been targeted by Jihadists, most violently during the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

In Montauban, French police tracked the killer's movements using closed circuit television and told local media that he appeared to have a good knowledge of local routes around the town.

As a psychological description of the murderer, "cold and calculating" hardly covers his callous modus operandi.

The first victim Imad ibn Ziaten was lured to his death when the gunman answered an advert for the paratrooper's Suzuki Bandit motorcycle.

French cyber police are now trying to trace the killer using his IP address and other almost invisible digital traces.

So far though, little evidence has been left at the scene of any of the shootings. No finger prints or traces of DNA have yet been recovered.

Last week, an extra 50 to 60 counter terrorist agents were drafted into the Toulouse area as it became the centre of France's biggest manhunt.

But within days the same man appears to have struck again, prompting an even larger police operation to find him.

http://news.sky.com