French President Nicolas Sarkozy has raised the country's terror alert to its highest level across southern France as the manhunt continues for a man authorities believe is responsible for three different killing sprees.

CBS News says: Sarkozy said Monday's attack in Toulouse, which killed three children and a rabbi, was the worst-ever school shooting in France. He said the terror alert level is being raised to scarlet, the highest on a four-point scale, in the region that includes Toulouse and neighboring areas. 

The religious implications behind Monday's shootings at a Jewish school have lead French authorities to examine the possibility that the three killings have the same motivation, as all the victims are apparently ethnic minorities.  

The casualties in the earlier attacks were paratroopers of North African and Caribbean origin.  

According to the Chicago Sun-Times:  France, which has seen a low drumroll of anti-Semitic incidents, is particularly sensitive toward the Jewish community because of its World War II past of abetting Nazi occupiers in deporting Jewish citizens.

French prosecutors were studying possible terrorist links but the motive for all three attacks was unclear. Still, issues about religious minorities and race have emerged prominently in France’s current presidential campaign. 

 

 

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