TOULOUSE, France French police stepped up the search on Tuesday for a gunman who filmed his carnage as he shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school, fearing the killer could strike again. 
 
 Officials believe the scooter-riding gunman is a trained marksman with "extremist" views who may also be responsible for last week's shootings of three soldiers of North African origin. 
 
 France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has said racism appeared to be the motivation for Monday's school attack, which came just five weeks before the first round of the presidential election. 
 
 Racist and anti-Semitic attacks are not uncommon in France. 
 
 Immigrants and Islam have been major themes of the campaign as Sarkozy tries to win over the voters of far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Analysts say the shootings could transform the election debate and possibly tone down populist rhetoric. 
 
 "We will track down this monster," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said of the killer on France 2 television. "We will find him, bring him to justice and punish him." 
 
 France is home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe and has a history of attacks on both groups, but Monday's shooting was the most deadly anti-Semitic attack on French soil in nearly 30 years. 
 
 The police tightened security at religious sites, raised the terror alert in the southern town to the highest possible level and talked to gun clubs in an effort to track down the killer. 
 
 "It would be surprising if he stops now," one police officer involved in the investigation told Reuters. 
 
 Surveillance tapes at the school showed the gunman recorded his shooting spree with a small video camera around his neck. 
 
 He is also the prime suspect in the killing of three paratroopers in two separate shootings last week in Toulouse and the nearby town of Montauban. 
 
 "This shows a profile of the murderer as someone who is very cold, very determined, with precise gestures, and therefore very cruel," Interior Minister Claude Gueant said. 
 
 In each attack, the gunman arrived on a stolen Yamaha scooter and used a Colt 45 handgun. His face was hidden by a motorcycle helmet during the attacks. 
 
 The three dead soldiers included two members of the 17th parachute regiment. Police have interviewed three former soldiers expelled from the regiment for neo-Nazi activity in 2008, but a police source told Reuters on Tuesday they had been ruled out of the investigation. 
 
 "GETTING READY FOR PRAYERS" 
 
 At the entrance of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, a five-floor brick building in a leafy residential neighborhood, residents and parents left floral tributes and candles in memory of the victims. 
 
 A child who survived the attack spoke of his sheer terror as the shots rang out through the school. 
 
 "We were getting ready for prayers when the principal stormed in and screamed that there was a shooting. I panicked and fled to the old canteen and heard the shots, but saw nothing," an 11-year old boy told France Info radio. 
 
 "I thought he was going to come in any minute and finish us all. Then I waited and waited and then my daddy came to get me." 
 
 Schools all over France observed a minute of silence. 
 
 "This has happened in Toulouse, in a religious school with children from Jewish families, but it could have happened here. The same killer could have come here, these children are exactly like you," Sarkozy said, attending the silent vigil in a Paris secondary school. 
 
 The bodies of the four victims, who hold dual French-Israeli nationality, will be repatriated to Israel on Tuesday night, Joel Mergui, the head of a Jewish religious organization, said. 
 
 The Israeli embassy identified the victims as Jonathan Sandler, 30, his children Gabriel and Arieh, aged four and five, and Myriam Monsonego, seven. 
 
 RACIAL TENSION 
 
 France's Jewish umbrella group Crif welcomed the decision by political parties to suspend their election campaigning until Wednesday out of respect for the victims. Analysts said the killings would change the election debate. 
 
 "The tone of the campaign cannot go back to what it was," said Dominique Reynie, head of Fondapol politics institute. 
 
 "The campaign was dominated by an aggressive tone and a strong degree of populist rhetoric. This rhetoric will cease because there will be voter demand for healing." 
 
 France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen is running third in the race for the presidency and this has helped to draw issues of race and immigration into the election campaign. 
 
 The centre-right Sarkozy has tried to attract her voters with a pledge to halve immigration and criticism of halal slaughter as he lags Socialist Francois Hollande in voting intentions polls. 
 
 Some analysts said there would be a discussion about whether Sarkozy has stirred feelings that led to the attack. 
 
 "There will be more debate, notably on whether the tension created in society by Nicolas Sarkozy and the UMP (ruling party) has not somehow provoked or facilitated this type of violence," said L'Express magazine editor-in-chief Christophe Barbier. 
 
 Juppe said the campaign could not have triggered the shooting. 
 
 "Anti-Semitism exists in France, we have fought it for years," he said. 
 
 "Nobody should try to benefit in any way from this drama, which is in no way linked to the electoral campaign." 
 
 (Additional reporting by Geert De Clercq, Emmanuel Jarry and Marine Pennetier; writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Anna Willard) ||||| School Shooting Gun Same As Other Attacks 
 
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 A shooting at a Jewish school in France was carried out with the same stolen scooter and same gun used in two earlier attacks. 
 
 A religious education teacher, his two sons, aged three and six, and a 10-year-old girl all died in the attack at the Ozar Hatorah school in Jolimont, Toulouse, on Monday morning. 
 
 A 17-year-old boy was also seriously injured in the shooting, which was carried out by a gunman riding a scooter. 
 
 The teacher has been named by his family as Jonathan Sandler, an Israeli-French dual citizen originally from Jerusalem who moved to France last September. 
 
 The attack bore strong similarities to two shootings in the same region earlier this month, in which three French soldiers were shot dead by a gunman riding a scooter. 
 
 Victim Jonathan Sandler (Picture courtesy of Aaron Getz) 
 
 The killer was wearing a full face helmet and escaped on what police said was a 500cc Yamaha TMAX scooter stolen in Toulouse earlier this month. 
 
 A French police official said the same large calibre pistol was used in all three attacks. French prosecutors are studying possible terrorist links but any potential motive remains unclear. 
 
 French president Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the terror alert in the southwestern region to be raised to the highest level. 
 
 Mr Sarkozy said he was "sure" the same gunman was behind the three attacks and that it was "obvious" Monday's event was anti-Semitic. 
 
 Parent: A mad man is on the loose 
 
 He added that he was suspending his re-election campaign until at least Wednesday. 
 
 Earlier Toulouse prosecutor Michel Valet described what happened: "A man arrived in front of the school on a motorcycle or scooter. He got off and when he was directly outside the building shot at everyone, children and adults alike." 
 
 A resident who lives near the school said he spoke to Mr Sandler just before he was mown down. 
 
 "I said 'bonjour' to him like normal then he went out into the school entrance," said Baroukh, 29. "I heard the shots and I turned around and saw him on the ground. He looked dead but I didn't have much time to see who did it because I panicked and started running away." 
 
 Forensics at work at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse 
 
 A six-year-old schoolgirl called Alexia said: "I came to the school this morning for prayers. Five minutes later we heard shots and we were very afraid. We were gathered in a room and prayed together while we waited for our parents." 
 
 Mr Sarkozy rushed to the scene, where he described the attack as "barbaric" and vowed that the killer would be caught. 
 
 "Today is a day of national tragedy because children have been assassinated in cold blood. This tragedy affects the national community as a whole," he said. 
 
 His main rival in the presidential election battle, Francois Hollande, said: "This act, whose anti-Semitic nature is as obvious as it is despicable, hits what families hold most dear - their children, and plunges the entire nation into mourning." 
 
 In the earlier attacks, three soldiers were killed and another seriously wounded by a gunman wearing black and riding a high-speed scooter or motorbike. 
 
 On March 11, a 30-year-old non-commissioned officer dressed in civilian clothes was shot at point-blank range by an assailant using a 9mm gun. 
 
 president sarkozy: this terror cannot win 
 
 Four days later, two paratroopers were killed and another seriously injured at a cash machine outside their barracks in Montauban around 30 miles (50km) from Toulouse. 
 
 Witnesses said the motorcyclist walked up to the men, who were in uniform but unarmed, and opened fire at point blank range. 
 
 He apparently had time to turn over one of the wounded men who was trying to crawl away and fire three more shots before returning to his scooter and fleeing. 
 
 Police forensic experts said on Friday that the same pistol was used in both attacks and officers have said the same calibre weapon was used at the school. 
 
 French media reported that the paratroopers involved were of Arab origin. 
 
 Before the third attack, a major manhunt was already under way and between 50 and 60 police officers including anti-terrorist specialists were working on the investigation. 
 
 Senior military officials have also instructed troops based in the region not to wear their uniforms outside barracks. 
 
 French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said there is no evidence yet to suggest the soldiers had been killed because of their service in Afghanistan. 
 
 After Monday's tragedy, France initially ordered security to be tightened around all of its Jewish schools. Within hours, it widened the move to include all religious buildings. 
 
 A formal link between the attacks has not yet been established but the three investigations have now been taken over by Parisian authorities. 
 
 Prosecutor Francois Molins said: "Paris prosecutors have taken over three probes into murder and attempted murder carried out as part of a terrorist enterprise." 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the killings as a "despicable murder". 
 
 "It is too early to determine exactly what the background to the murderous act was, but we certainly cannot rule out the option that it was motivated by violent and murderous anti-Semitism," the leader said. 
 
 So far, little evidence has been left at the scene of any of the shootings. No finger prints or traces of DNA have yet been recovered. Read Sam Kiley's piece on the manhunt 
 
 Sky's defence and security editor Sam Kiley said there was a clear pattern despite the shift from attacking the military to Jewish targets. 
 
 He said: "All of these shootings have been in the Toulouse area. Police have already made that connection. They have sent down counter-terrorist specialists. 
 
 "They will be focusing their attention on Islamic groups and on the weapon being used, which given these are quick drive-by shootings is likely to be an Uzi or a Scorpion - a small machine-gun with very high, rapid fire." 
 
 A minute's silence will be held in all French schools at 11am Tuesday in memory of the victims. 
 
 France has the largest Jewish community and the largest Muslim population in western Europe, with around 500,000 and around 5 million respectively.
– As if there could be a crueler twist to the Jewish school shooting in Toulouse that yesterday rocked France: France's interior minister today revealed that the gunman likely filmed the killings. The school's surveillance video revealed that a video camera was attached to the killer's neck, reports Reuters. "This adds another element to the profile of the killer. It is someone who is cruel enough to record it," says Claude Gueant, "someone who is very cold, very determined, with precise gestures, and therefore very cruel." A 200-strong group of police officers is hunting the killer, who is also suspected in the deaths of three paratroopers who were gunned down in Toulouse and Montauban last week. Police believe the perpetrator many have been trained as a marksman, and used a Yamaha scooter to flee the scenes. And while there's no indication that Jews are in danger outside of Southern France, the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that US officials are keeping an eye on the situation and on the possibility that Jews could be targeted stateside. The NYPD has beefed up security at synagogues and potential targets in the city.