Muscat Daily

An hour of terror

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Around 7:50pm on Tuesday, a lone man opened fire several times in the centre of Strasbourg, which every year holds a Christmas market, drawing in huge crowds of shoppers and tourists.

The suspect was quickly identified as a 29 year old man born in Strasbourg and already known to the police.

He ‘sowed terror (...) at three points in the city’, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.

“Soldiers of the Sentinelle force used their weapons to try to intercept the assailant, and between 8:20pm and 9:00pm he twice confronted our security forces with systematic exchanges of fire,” he said, referring to soldiers deployed under the country’s anti-terror operation, in place since attacks in 2015.

In his attack, the man killed three people and wounded 11 others, five seriously and six slightly, before fleeing and rushing into a taxi, according to a source close to the inves- tigation. The taxi driver, unscathed, told police the suspect was injured.

A soldier was also lightly wounded by the ricochet of a shot from the attacker.

Attacker known to security services

The suspect was well known to the authoritie­s and had been convicted in France and Germany and served his sentences, the Minister said.

In 2016 he was flagged by anti-terrorist services, according to a source close to the investigat­ion.

He had been reported by the General Directorat­e for Internal Security (DGSI) intelligen­ce agency during a visit to prison where he was noted for

Troops and police

Significan­t resources have been deployed to track down the fugitive.

On the ground, 350 people have been mobilised, including 100 police personnel supported by two helicopter­s, officers from elite units, and also soldiers of Operation Sentinelle, which protect sensitive places which could be terrorism targets, Castaner said. After raising the security alert level to ‘emergency attack’, he announced reinforced border controls.

Additional resources were also to be sent to Strasbourg which would be under strengthen­ed surveillan­ce.

 ?? (AFP) ?? Interior Minister Christophe Castaner
(AFP) Interior Minister Christophe Castaner

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