[link to www.thestar.com]

A gunman took four people hostage Thursday in a bank in the southern French city of Toulouse and fired a shot, police said. French television reported that he claimed allegiance to the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

Tensions have been high in Toulouse since March, when a gunman who police said claimed links to Al Qaeda killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in the area. Those were France's worst terrorist attacks in years, and led to a crackdown on suspected Islamic radicals around France.

[link to edition.cnn.com]