A gunman who killed seven people in France before police shot him dead has been buried in Toulouse.
Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, was to have been interred in a village in the North African country at the request of his father, but this was declined for security reasons.
A witness said the body of Merah, whose murder of three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi shocked France, was buried this evening in a cemetery on Toulouse's outskirts.
Toulouse Mayor Pierre Cohen had earlier asked to postpone the burial so that the French government could consider moving its location elsewhere.
Mr Cohen said he deemed it inappropriate to inter Merah in the southwestern city where the killings occurred.
"It seemed better to us to find another burial location," Mr Cohen said. "The minister I contacted reminded me of the law and as a result I have given permission for him to be buried tonight.
Television images showed Merah's hearse arriving at the cemetery where he was buried in a section reserved for Muslims.
Around 20 mourners, most of them young, attended the funeral, accompanied by a large police escort.
Nicole Yardeni, the regional head of Jewish umbrella group CRIF, said she hoped the authorities would do everything to ensure Merah's resting place did not become a pilgrimage site.
An Algerian government source confirmed earlier that the country had refused to admit Merah's body for burial in his home village of Bezzaz, as requested by the gunman's father.
Mohamed Benalal Merah said he is to sue the French special police over his son's death.
When police surrounded the gunman's Toulouse apartment last week, he fought off an initial assault and then, in a conversation with a police negotiator, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
He said he shot dead three soldiers in two separate attacks in Toulouse and nearby Montauban on 11 and 15 March, then last Monday opened fire at a Jewish school in Toulouse, killing a 30-year-old teacher, his sons aged five and four, and a seven-year-old girl.
