Three blasts rang out late Wednesday from the bulding where Mohamed Merah, the suspect in a string of killings in France, has been holed up for nearly 20 hours in a standoff with French police, DPA reported.
Police had doused the streetlights two hours before the blasts went off, signalling perhaps the start of a final assault to bring in Merah, which had been expected during the evening.
The flash of explosives came from the building where Merah has taken cover from police, but it was not clear if police or Merah had triggered the blasts.
Reporters were kept at a two-block distance from the scene. In the darkened streets, the blasts flared bright orange.
In the course of the evening, several dozen reinforcements, reportedly from Paris, arrived, members of the elite special raid team. They wore balaclavas to disguise their identity.
A bomb disposal truck, ambulances and firetrucks were waiting at the ready near the scene of the standoff.