Mauritanian police set up roadblocks near the Senegalese border Tuesday as they hunted the killers of four French tourists, security sources said. A massive manhunt was underway for three men suspected of shooting dead the tourists, including three male members of the same family, and wounding a fifth in the southern town of Aleg on Monday, they said. The suspected killers were believed to have fled in the direction of the Senegalese border to the south. A taxi driver told police he had taken the suspects to the border town of Bogue, 50 kilometres (36 miles) south of Aleg, on Monday night. Checkpoints had been thrown up along the border and aircraft were reportedly scouring the area after the suspects' car was found abandoned near the scene of the crime.
Local Governor Sidi Mouloud Ould Brahim told Radio France International that a military plane was involved in the manhunt. "We have sent a military aircraft to scour the region. We have stepped up security around all exit points," he said.
Two men arrested late Monday were still being interrogated by police but a female detained with them had been released. It was not clear how they were suspected of being involved in the shooting. The tourists -- four male relatives and a male friend -- were on a driving trek between Paris and Burkina Faso and were on their way to Mali when they were attacked, the French foreign ministry said in Paris.