Gun in Jewish school attack also used in soldier killings

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said there were striking similarities between a shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday and the killing of three soldiers earlier this month in two separate incidents.
  
"We are struck by the similarities between the modus operandi of today's drama and those last week even if we have to wait to have more elements from the police to confirm this hypothesis," Sarkozy said.
   
Speaking from Toulouse, he said that one of the soldiers killed in the earlier incidents had been of Caribbean origin and the other two Muslims.

It was also reported that the gun used in a shooting was the same one used in two separate incidents last week in which three soldiers were killed, a police source said.

French anti-terrorism prosecutors will investigate the shooting of a teacher and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday and the shooting of three soldiers in two other separate incidents last week, they said. 

Paris prosecutors said in a statement that they were opening anti-terrorism investigations into the three incidents following the shooting at the Ozar Hatorah school.  

A man shot and killed at least four people, including three children, at the Jewish school in Toulouse in southwestern France on Monday.  

The French Interior Ministry announced that it will tighten security measures around Jewish schools. Interior Minister Claude Gueant said that similarities exist between the last week’s attack against soldiers and Monday’s shooting. 

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed surprise over the incident, adding that he has full confidence in the ability of French authorities to reveal the ins and outs of the crime and defer the criminals to justice.  

Reuters/LBCI