French gunmen dead as Toulouse siege ends - media An undated and non-datelined frame grab from a video broadcast March 21, 2012 by French ...

French gunmen dead as Toulouse siege ends - media

An undated and non-datelined frame grab from a video broadcast March 21, 2012 by French national television station France 2, who they claim to show Mohamed Merah, the suspect in the killing of 3 paratroopers, 3 children and a rabbi in recent days in France. About 300 police, some in body armour, have cordoned off a five-storey building in Toulouse where the 24-year-old Muslim shooter, identified as Mohamed Merad, is holed up. (REUTERS/France 2 Television/Handout)

French security personnel stand near the Belle Paule residence in Toulouse. The alleged Al-Qaeda militant believed responsible for a killing spree is dead, a police source said, after he resisted a raid on his besieged home in southern France. (AFP Photo/Remy Gabalda)

TOULOUSE (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-inspired gunman who killed seven people in France is dead after police stormed his apartment in the southern city of Toulouse, French media reported on Thursday.

Three police trade union sources told Reuters that Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin who has confessed to killing three Jewish children and four adults, was dead, but there was no official confirmation.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's office had no immediate comment. The media reports said three police commandos were wounded in a shootout with the suspect.

Gunfire rang out for around four minutes as special forces entered the five-storey building where Merah had been hiding out since early on Wednesday, but the shooting later ceased, a Reuters witness said.

(Agencies)