Four people have been taken hostage in a bank in the southern French city of Toulouse by a man claiming to be linked to al-Qaeda, police say. The man entered the French bank CIC around 9am GMT, fired a gun and wants to talk to the RAID police unit that shot dead al-Qaeda-inspired gunman Mohamed Merah in March at his flat, which is in the same neighbourhood as the bank. The anti-terrorist police unit was on its way to the scene and the area was sealed off, UNSA police union official Cedric Delage told Reuters. He could not confirm the man’s claim to be a member of the al-Qaeda militant group. Merah was killed at the end of a 32-hour siege of his flat after he shot dead seven people – three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse – in a wave of killings that shocked the country. The 23-year-old who claimed to be an al-Qaeda militant filmed himself carrying out the attacks and reportedly confessed to police before he was shot dead.