A man murdered by the Toulouse gunman will be able to marry his fiancée.

The paratrooper Abel Chennouf had planned to marry his the pregnant girlfriend, 21-year-old Caroline Monet, and, despite his death, there will be a legally recognized wedding ceremony:

Such ceremonies are unusual but not unheard of in France, where the law allows posthumous marriages in cases where a fiance dies before the wedding. The law states that such weddings can only be approved by the French president "in grave circumstances".

"I've already had it done twice, for policemen's girlfriends," [lawyer Gilbert] Collard said. "It's a really moving ceremony, with an empty chair representing the dead spouse."

Collard said the official request was being sent out on Saturday but he'd already received approval from the French president's office.

Should the law permit someone to marry a dead person?