Two held for Paris murders

The shooting of a woman in Essonne in early April by a man on a motorbike sent shivers through France,coming days after an al Qaeda-inspired gunman shot dead three soldiers,a rabbi and three Jewish children in southwestern France in March.

Police hunted down that gunman in a matter of days and shot him dead after a long standoff at Toulouse.

Prosecutors said earlier this month that the Essonne gunman had used the same 7.65 mm calibre semi-automatic pistol in three other shootings in the same area over the five previous months.

The government vowed to throw all its resources into hunting down the killer and placed 100 investigators on the case.

A judicial official,meanwhile,said another person was in custody,without specifying when the suspect was brought in.

In the Essonne killings,authorities have stressed theres no evidence of a link to terrorism.

The first victim was killed in November; a suspect was detained in that crime but has since retracted his confession. The most recent murder was April 5,after which authorities said they werent sure if just one person was behind the killings.