France mourns teacher and three children murdered at Toulouse Jewish school

Toulouse police with reinforcements are hunting the motorcyclist gunman who attacked the Jewish Ozar Hatorah school Monday, March 19, and murdered a teacher, Yonathan Sandler, 30, his sons Arieh, 3 and Gavriel, 6 and the principal’s daughter, Miriam Monstango, aged 8. The killer dressed in black continued shooting 9mm and 11.43mm pistols at children inside the school yard before escaping.
Several children were injured. A 17-year old boy is in critical condition.

Straight after the attack, President Nicolas Sarkozy flew to the school with Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who is leading the investigation. He ordered extra security to be laid on at all Jewish institutions in France and all French schools observe a minute’s silence in mourning Tuesday. Sarkozy said later he had no doubt that the attacks were motivated by anti-Semitism.
The Toulouse Jewish community held a memorial service Monday night. The victims’ families have asked to have them buried in Israel.

The local police are investigating links with a recent attack by a black-garbed motorcyclist answering to the same description who shot dead three French parachutists and wounded a fourth at the nearby town of Montauban before escaping.  They had all served in Afghanistan.