French city honours victims of Christmas market attack
PARIS — People filled a square in the French city of Strasbourg on Sunday to show respect and sympathy for the victims of last week’s shooting attack near a famous Christmas market as the death toll rose to five.
Poland’s state news agency PAP said a Pole who died in a Strasbourg hospital Sunday had been one of the dozen people wounded in the attack Tuesday evening. PAP identified him only as a 36-year-old from Katowice, in Poland.
According to the newspaper DNA, more than 1,000 people attended the memorial, which ended with a minute of applause and a rendition of France’s national anthem, “La Marseillaise.”
The hour-long ceremony took place in Kleber Square, not far from where a gunman opened fire on Tuesday evening. Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries praised the city’s resilience in the face of hardship.
The “extremely large crowd in the Christmas market” on Saturday “was an illustration of our commitment to these values on which our living together is based, which we will continue to defend against all those who want to attack it,” Ries said.
An extensive manhunt for the gunman ended Thursday night when the main suspect, Strasbourg-born Cherif Chekatt, 29, was killed in a shootout with police in the city neighbourhood where he grew up.
The attack remains under investigation. The Paris prosecutor’s office said two people who were close Chekatt were released from custody Sunday “in the absence of incriminating elements at this stage.”
Only one of the seven people authorities detained while searching for Chekatt was still being held.
Chekatt’s parents and two of his brothers, who were held for questioning for several days, were released Saturday.