1:03pm UK, Thursday March 22, 2012

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16194033

President Nicolas Sarkozy has surged into the lead in election opinion polls following his handling of the crisis in Toulouse where a gunman is under siege suspected of killing of seven people.

The first survey since Monday's killings predicted Mr Sarkozy would narrowly beat his Socialist challenger in the first round of a presidential election next month.

The poll of 1,000 people, carried out on Monday and Tuesday, put Mr Sarkozy on 30% in the first round and Francois Hollande on 28%.

However, it showed Mr Hollande would win a second-round run-off by a margin of 8%.

The two rivals were neck and neck a week ago.

:: France Shootings - See The Latest

Until now Mr Hollande has enjoyed a large lead over the president, whose economic record and showy style left many voters dissatisfied.

However, Mr Sarkozy's response to Monday's shootings seems to have improved his image.

The rivals suspended their campaigns after three children and a rabbi were shot dead at a Jewish school in Toulousein southwest France, killings that followed the shooting dead of three soldiers earlier this month.

Suspected gunman Mohammed Merah

The shootings, allegedly by 24-year-old Muslim Mohammed Merah in the name of al Qaeda, have allowed the French president to play his preferred role of protector-in-chief and put a new focus on security, traditionally a strong point.

He has repeatedly appeared on national television giving information on the manhunt and presiding over a ceremony for the fallen soldiers, while Mr Hollande has had little choice but to remain on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who is number three in the polls, says her anti-Islam agenda has been vindicated because the chief suspect in the country's worst killing spree in years is a French Muslim who claims ties to al Qaeda.

France, she says, must "wipe out" the Islamist threat, arguing it is corrupting the French culture and has not been taken seriously enough by the authorities.