Four killed & 11 injured in Xmas market gun rampage
Lawyer slams Whirlpool’s bid to blame Grenfell fire on cigarette
HUNT Gun cops in square A GUNMAN was on the run after killing two and injuring 11 near Strasbourg’s Christmas Market.
Police armed with machine guns were seen running into Place Kleber, the largest square in the eastern French city, shortly after 7pm local time.
They said the gunman, on a terror watchlist, was injured in an exchange of gunfire with a soldier.
The authorities ordered people to stay indoors as counter-terrorism prosecutors said they had opened an investigation.
SHOOT
Seven of the injured were in a serious condition.
Witness Peter Fritz told the BBC he tried to resuscitate a victim on a bridge but the man died.
A French journalist said he “saw soldiers shoot a man, who was reportedly targeting them”.
At the square the injured took shelter as police evacuated the market.
MEPs at the European Parliament, sitting in the city, were in lockdown.
MEP Richard Corbett earlier tweeted: “Shots fired with unconfirmed reports of three dead.”
Strasbourg’s Christmas Market draws millions of tourists every year. Ravaged kitchen at Flat 16 RAJIV MENON QC ON CLAIMS IN WHIRLPOOL STATEMENT A LAWYER for the man who lived in the flat where the Grenfell fire started has blasted Whirlpool as “desperate” over a bid to blame it on a cigarette.
An expert last month said the inferno, which killed 72 in June 2017, probably started in one of the US giant’s Hotpoint FF175BP fridge-freezers in Flat 16.
But Rajiv Menon QC yesterday told the inquest into the tragedy the firm has planned a “transparent attempt to try to avoid liability and minimise reputational damage and financial loss”.
Whirlpool will make a closing statement to the hearing later this week – which has been seen by lawyers representing those hit by the horror.
Mr Menon ran through several points he said will be in it, including: “Although the inquiry can conclude the fire began in or around the area of the Hotpoint fridge-freezer and was caused accidentally, it cannot conclude the fire was electrical in nature or that it originated from the fridge-freezer.
“The fire may have started not electronically, by somebody throwing something, perhaps a burning cigarette, into the kitchen through the open window.”
The lawyer, representing Behailu Kebede, told the inquiry: “This is pure speculation, desperate to put it politely. There is no evidence, it would have been impossible for a cigarette or other mystery item to have been launched from ground level four floors down.
“It is equally impossible to imagine how a cigarette or some other mystery item discarded from a flat above could have miraculously entered the kitchen through the open window, let alone set anything in the vicinity alight.”
Mr Menon said it was important the inquiry make a finding that the fire started in the fridge-freezer so that “as a society we can try to regulate SURVIVOR Resident Kebede Tower inferno killed 72 Fridge-freezer remains in the interest of public safety”. He added: “The inquiry must unequivocally declare Mr Kebede bears no responsibility indirectly or directly for the outbreak of fire in his kitchen, its spread and consequences.”
Whirlpool said: “We are committed to assisting the inquiry. We would like to reassure owners of these products they are safe. Two separate investigations have been carried out into this model. Both independently found no evidence of any fault and confirmed it fully complied with all safety requirements.”
It would have been impossible for a cigarette to have been launched from 4 floors down