The Toulouse shootings were expected to favour president and candidate Nicolas Sarkozy who has been campaigning on security and immigration for several years.  

But a recent BVA poll shows that security is not a top priority for French voters despite the recent spate of killings.

On Thursday, the French police shot and killed Mohamed Merah, the self-confessed author of several shootings that claimed seven lives, after a 32-hour-long siege in Toulouse.

But, a BVA pollster told Le Parisien that the crisis in Toulouse was perceived as an extraordinary event, not representative of the everyday violence in France. 

42 percent of French voters still say that buying power is the most important theme that will influence their vote, the BVA poll shows. Only eight percent of voters said security was their main preoccupation. 

The poll also showed French voters worry about unemployment, economic growth and poverty. 

French voters also say frontrunner and Socialist François Hollande was more credible than Sarkozy on economic issues, according to the BVA poll. Hollande and Sarkozy were also said to be equally credible on the topic of security.