Scooter led to Toulouse suspect

Staff at this Toulouse scooter store tipped off police that one of their customers could be the gunman suspected of killing seven people.

They said suspect Mohamed Merha, asked how to deactivate a GPS tracker on the scooter.

The killer used a scooter to flee the scene after the shootings.

Salesman Christian Dellacherie says things just added up.

SOUNDBITE: CHRISTIAN DELLACHERIE, SCOOTER SALESMAN, SAYING (French):

"Things started to become clear to us when we learned that the scooter used in these crimes had been repainted, and during the conversation this person had with my technician he also spoke about the tracker, and that he had removed it to have it repainted. It's information we just found out like that and which we passed on to the police."

The French prosecutor investigating the killings says Merha claims responsibility for the bloodshed in the name of al Qaeda.

Francois Molins says he also planned further attacks on soldiers and police officers.

SOUNDBITE: PROSECUTOR FRANCOIS MOLINS SAYING (French):

"He says his only regret is that he didn't have the time to make more victims. He even boasts, he says, of having brought France to its knees."

As the police siege of Merha's Toulouse apartment ran into Thursday, shots and explosions were heard.

About 300 officers are involved in the operation.

They moved in after the killings of three children and a teacher outside a Jewish school on Monday, and the shooting of three soldiers in two earlier attacks.

Paul Chapman, Reuters