French police say a suspect's DNA matches samples found at the scene of several shootings in Paris this week.
Abdelhakim Dekhar was arrested yesterday in the French capital, after a tip-off from a member of the public.
He's suspected of shooting a photographer's assistant at a newspaper office, opening fire outside a bank, and threatening staff at a TV station.
Dekhar was previously jailed in the 1990s for his role in a murder spree.
Speaking through a translator, police spokesperson, Christophe Crepin says he was detained in a northern suburb of Paris:
The office of city prosecutors said the reading of Mr Dekhar's rights had to be postponed because he was not in a position to be questioned.
Several sources close to the investigation said the suspect had been found in a semi-conscious state.
A witness to the arrest told BFM TV: "I don't know if they fired or not to make him stop. He did not move in the ambulance."
Murder spree
Police sources told AFP the man arrested is the same Abdelhakim Dekhar who was convicted in 1998 for his links to a "Bonnie-and-Cyde-style" murder spree.
Dekhar was accused of buying a gun used in the 1994 attacks by Florence Rey and her lover Audry Maupin.
Three policemen and a taxi driver were killed in the attacks, in a case that gripped France.
Dekhar protested his innocence at his trial in 1998, claiming he had been recruited by the Algerian secret service to infiltrate the French far-left. Despite that, he was found guilty and sentenced to four years in jail.
Latest attacks
On Monday, the shooter critically wounded a photographer at the offices of Liberation newspaper.
The photographer was arriving for his first day of freelance work at the newspaper and suffered wounds to his chest and stomach.
After fleeing the newspaper's offices in the east of Paris, the gunman is believed to have crossed over to the western edge of the city, where he fired several shots outside the main office of the Societe Generale bank. No one was hurt.
He then reportedly hijacked a car driven by a priest and forced him to drop him off close to the Champs-Elysees in the centre of the city.
The shootings prompted a massive manhunt across Paris. The motive for the attacks remains unknown.
The same man is also suspected to have previously entered the offices of French TV station BFM carrying a gun.
The attacks led to French police arranging guards at Paris media outlets.
The photographer's assistant, who has not been named, is understood to be awake and off life support.
