Police have detained a man who took four people hostage in a bank in the French city of Toulouse on Wednesday, the BFM TV channel reported.
A series of gunshots were heard from the area of the bank before the arrest.
The man claims to be a member of al-Qaeda. Before his arrest, the man released a female hostage.
Authorities said the gunman had psychiatric problems in the past and claimed he was acting out of religious reasons.
The incident happened in the same area where two months ago Merah, of French-Algerian descent, shot dead three soldiers, a rabbi and three Jewish children before being killed in a police raid at his home.
