MANHUNT ENDS IN SHOOTOUT.

PARIS • Armed police Thursday night killed Cherif Chekatt, the prime suspect in Tuesday’s murderous attack on a Strasbourg Christmas market, after swooping on a warehouse in the city.

Speaking to reporters French interior minister Christophe Castaner said that Chekatt was shot dead during a police raid in Strasbourg’s La Meinau district.

A Reuters journalist reported hearing at least three shots as police raided the area while a police helicopter hovered overhead.

The revelations came after French authorities stated that they would take Chekatt dead or alive.

Thursday afternoon, dozens of French police including members of the elite Raid force cordoned off an area of southern Strasbourg where the gunman was last seen.

Police blocked several streets in the Neudorf district, a short drive from the city centre, where Chekatt exchanged fire with officers on Tuesday night after getting out of a taxi.

On Wednesday night authorities issued a wanted poster of the 29-year-old local, who has 27 previous convictions for theft and armed robbery and served sentences in French, German and Swiss jails.

Witnesses told investigators that Chekatt shouted “Allahu akbar” as he opened fire on the Christmas market, which is attended by two million people every year. Three people were killed in the attack and several people injured, at least five of whom remained in a serious condition last night.

On Thursday, more than 700 police were engaged in the manhunt in eastern France, amid reports German police had launched a raid near the border in Kehl.

French authorities have said that Chekatt was placed on a terror watch list in 2015 and had been monitored closely in recent months.

However, according to Le Monde, he had put a picture of Osama bin Laden on his prison wall as early as 2008, when he was 19. “His radicalization dates from before his time in prison,” a source close to the inquiry told the paper.

According to Le Parisien, Chekatt told a taxi driver he forced to drive him out of Strasbourg’s city centre on Tuesday at gunpoint that he had killed his victims at point blank range to avenge “brothers in Syria” and to punish “infidels.”

The French government Thursday called on members of a “yellow vest” revolt to suspend their protests to allow French security forces to focus on the terror threat.