How French police missed chance to stop Xmas killer
They’d raided his flat but failed to raise alarm
BLUNDERs by security services left a fanatic free to carry out an attack at a French Christmas market, it emerged yesterday.
Cherif Chekatt killed at least two people and injured 13 others in strasbourg on Tuesday night – just a few hours after police had raided his flat to arrest him on suspicion of attempted murder.
They found a grenade, a rifle, ammunition and four knives – but there was no sign of the suspect at the apartment, which is less than two miles from the market.
Officers failed to put out a public appeal to find Chekatt, 29, even though he had been on the terror watch list for four years.
Less than 12 hours after the abortive raid, the serial criminal smuggled a pistol and a knife into a supposedly secure area of the market then shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ – ‘God is Great’ in Arabic – and started shooting. Officials fear he may have already fled to Germany following the attack.
searches of shoppers and their bags were introduced at Christmas markets across Europe two years ago after a stolen lorry was driven into pedestrians in Berlin, killing 11 and injuring 56.
However, most are carried out by poorly-paid civilians who do not have police expertise.
Chekatt killed two men and left a third brain dead. One of the dead was yesterday named as Thai tourist Anupong suebsamarn, 45, who had just arrived in strasbourg with his wife. At least 12 others were wounded, six of whom are in a critical condition. Jill Riches, from Leigh in Essex, who works as an EU interpreter in strasbourg, said: ‘We heard shots and screams and saw people, including the gunman, run past. Then we saw all the ambulances and soon police arrived.
‘The entire city is in a state of shock. The mood is very sombre.’
CCTV of the attack shows the fanatic – who was radicalised in a French jail – jogging through the market as he reloads his gun. Three civilians tried to intervene, one of whom was stabbed.
Armed police and soldiers raced to help and Chekatt was shot in the arm by a soldier before he hijacked a taxi. He jumped out in the Neudorf district of the city and escaped again after exchanging fire with soldiers. Last night at least 650 soldiers and police were hunting for him.
French officials said they cannot ‘rule out’ the possibility that Chekatt has crossed the border into Germany. Free movement rules mean he would not have had to show a passport.
Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said: ‘shortly before 8pm, terrorism once again struck our territory, reminding us that the threat is still very real.’
Interior minister Christophe Castaner also revealed police had narrowly missed catching the suspect at around 10pm on Monday – before the raid on his flat. ‘They were waiting for him on a cycle path,’ he said. ‘They shone a torch in his face, which blinded him, but he immediately opened fire.’
France has raised its terror threat to ‘emergency attack’ – the highest level – and is reinforcing security at Christmas markets.
Chekatt, born in strasbourg to Algerian parents, lived on a rundown estate. He has been convicted of 27 crimes in France, Germany and switzerland and has spent at least five years in jail.
Police believe Chekatt and three accomplices tried to stab a man to death in the nearby town of Eckbolsheim on August 21. They had planned to arrest him for attempted murder on Monday.
His mother, father and two brothers have been arrested. sources said that members of his family also held radical views.
Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the conservative Republicans party was deeply critical of the French security services. He said: ‘How many terror attacks by those on a watch list do we have to suffer before adapting our law to the fight against terrorism?’
‘The threat is still very real’