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A minute of silence was observed at midday on Friday in Toulouse to
remember those killed in the shootings that horrified France and the
world.
The names of the slain soldiers of North African origin and the Rabbi and three murdered Jewish children were read out.
The
gathering outside City Hall was also a public rejection of racism and
anti-Semitism and a sign that people of all backgrounds can come
together.
A day after the deadly climax to the siege, Mohamed
Merah's neighbours are struggling to come to terms with everything that
has happened.
Pascaline Mariaye, who had just moved out, says she is shocked at having lived near a man like that.
"Like
many people, I would have preferred him to explain his actions and be
punished like any other criminal," she said. "It was fate that it wasn't
going to be that way, so there you go."
Another neighbour, Mrs
Close, said: "It is hard because he is a monster but he is also a
23-year-old who got himself killed like that."
Merah's death has
not lifted the sadness around the Jewish school where what should have
been an ordinary Monday morning ended in a massacre.
"It won't
change anything, dead or alive, it won't bring our children back," said a
man, giving his name as Maurice, who goes to the school to pray.
"He
wanted to die so it is too easy for him," said Justine Ribes, 16. "He
got what he wanted. The little ones and the soldiers, they didn't ask
for anything. They didn't want to die."
But here too, communities
are supporting each other. Among the flowers left outside the school is
a bouquet from Muslim parents in Toulouse.
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