FRANCE Market attacker is shot dead by security forces
STRASBOURG, France — A man suspected of being the gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market in Strasbourg died in a shootout with police Thursday following a two-day manhunt.
The man was identified as Charif Chekatt, a 29-year-old whom police had been searching for since the Tuesday night attack, which also left 13 people wounded.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the suspect opened fire on police Thursday when officials tried to arrest him.
“The moment they tried to arrest him, he turned around and opened fired. They replied,” Castaner said.
A local police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the suspect was armed with a pistol and a knife.
The shooting occurred in the Neudorf neighborhood of Strasbourg, where police searched intensively earlier Thursday for Chekatt, suspected of being the Christmas market gunman.
Chekatt is accused of killing three people and wounding 13 on Tuesday night. Castaner said earlier Thursday that three of the injured had been released from hospital and three others were fighting for their lives.
More than 700 officers were deployed to find Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online, said the Islamic State’s Amaq news agency described Chekatt as a “soldier” of the group.
Security forces, including the elite Raid squad, spent two hours searching in Neudorf on Thursday based on “supposition only” that Chekatt could have been hiding in a building nearby two days after the attack, a French police official said. Chekatt grew up in Neudorf.
Chekatt allegedly shouted “God is great!” in Arabic and sprayed gunfire from a security zone near the Christmas market Tuesday evening. Authorities said he was wounded during an exchange of fire with security forces and a taxi driver dropped him off in Neudorf after he escaped.
So far, five people have been arrested and remanded in custody in connection with the investigation, including Chekatt’s parents and two of his brothers.
Samuel Petrequin, Elaine Ganley and Mstyslav Chernov are Associated Press writers.