Fears grew Friday that a serial killer was stalking housing estates in the suburbs of Paris, where the same weapon has been used to murder four apparently innocent citizens since November. The latest killing on Thursday of a 47-year-old mother, shot dead near her home in the Essonne suburb, prompted Interior Minister Claude Gueant to vow every effort was being made to find the killer.
All the victims were shot with the same small-calibre 7.65 mm weapon by a gunman who fled on a motorbike, recalling the methods of an Islamist extremist killed by police in southern France in March after murdering seven people. While nothing suggests any political or religious motives in the shootings, police are probing any possible links with several other homicides in a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius of the southern outer suburbs. "That is a concern, but in any case, as in every criminal inquiry, we are putting every effort into finding out who is behind this," Gueant said.
Local prosecutor Marie-Suzanne Le Queau told journalists the first killing was different from the others, although carried out with the same gun. "The way of killing is not identical in the four cases," Le Queau said, adding that around 100 investigators were working on the case and that identity checks in the area would be stepped up.
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