(CNN) Toulouse – French police had no grounds on which to arrest gunman Mohammed Merah before he carried out three attacks in which seven people died, Prime Minister Francois Fillon told French radio station RTL Friday.
Merah, 23, who was shot dead by special forces Thursday after a siege lasting more than 30 hours in the southwestern city of Toulouse, was wanted in the killings of three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three children ages 4, 5, and 7.