French shooting: 'He was waiting for us with guns... he was unflinching'

The thermal imaging and night vision equipment had monitored Mohammed Merah's Toulouse apartment, but hours went past with no movement.

The police had blown the doors and windows open and then at 10.30am yesterday a 15-strong team made their move. They cautiously entered the terrorist's home, sending in cameras on robots to look round corners and search the 30 square metre flat room by room.

The lavatory was called clear. The probe then went into the bathroom and the 23-year-old al-Qaeda killer seized his moment and opened fire.

Amaury de Hautecloque, commander of the elite Raid unit, said Merah was standing in 30cm of water when he was first seen - a water pipe had apparently been hit by a stray bullet the night before. "He was waiting in a fighter's stance with unflinching determination. He came out to meet us with three colt 45s of 11.43 calibre while we had begun this engagement using only non-lethal weapons," said Mr Hautecloque.

"I gave the order to return fire only with stun grenades. But he moved forward into the apartment and tried to kill my men? It was probably one of these snipers who killed him."

Hautecloque told Le Monde newspaper that negotiations with Merah had been going well and he had passed over a trove of information about the killings he had executed during the previous 10 days. "It was like a testament before his departure," he said. "We tried to the end to negotiate his surrender. He announced at 10.45pm on Wednesday that he wanted to die weapons in hand and that is what he did."

Merah, who had been wearing a bullet-proof vest beneath his Arab robe, managed to leap through a window before being shot dead with a bullet to the head. He left behind him two wounded officers.

Claude Gueant, France's interior minister, told reporters: "Officers used to this type of situation said they had never seen such a violent assault."

Only a day earlier Gueant had emphasised the intent to capture Merah alive. "We have one priority - to take him alive so that he can surrender to face justice." Throughout the night police had conducted an operation designed to intimidate the gunman and exert extreme psychological pressure in the hope of ending the stalemate with his surrender.

With electricity and gas supplies already cut off to the five-storey apartment block, the surrounding streets of the Cote Pavee district of Toulouse were thrown into darkness at around 10pm when the first of a volley of explosions were directed at the building.

The controlled detonations continued throughout the night interspersed with spotlights on 17 Rue Sergent Vigne and continuing after dawn with flash grenades. Gueant explained: "The decision to arrest him was taken this morning. At 10.30am, grenades were launched, as others had been during the night, but there was no reaction from him to this. The raid officers then decided to enter the flat first by the door, then the windows which had had their shutters blown off overnight."

As the drama came to an end after 32 hours fresh details emerged of Merah's links to Islamic extremist organisations.

His descent into darkness began in the housing estates of Les Izards and Mirail, where he is mostly remembered for his love of football and motorbikes and for buying sweets for children.

But within a few years he had transformed into an angry young jihadist with a fanatical belief in Salafism, an ultraconservative brand of Islam.

A social worker who knew Merah as a teenager said: "He liked danger - he used to race cars and motorbikes and do dangerous stunts. That turned into delinquency and petty crime. But to then start killing people, that is something quite different."

French authorities believe that he and his older brother, Abdelkader, became involved in two Islamist organisations, Forsane Alizza (The Knights of Pride) and a more militant, jihadist network known as the Toulouse group.

The Toulouse group, which brought together young fundamentalists of North African descent, was formed in around 2006, with the stated aim of targeting American interests in France and sending recruits to Iraq.

The organisation was investigated by the authorities in 2006 and 2007. Abdelkader Merah, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, was believed to be a member.

"Mohamed was about 18 years old but we think he may have been in contact with those on the list, through his brother, including more recently when members of the group were released from prison," an investigator told French newspaper Aujourd'hui.

In 2009 several members of the group were found guilty of various terrorist-related offences and given prison sentences of between six months and six years.