STRASBOURG, France -- The Latest on the attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France (all times local):

The office of the Paris prosecutor, which handles terrorism cases in France, says a man killed in Strasbourg in a shootout with police has been identified as the main suspect in a Christmas market attack that killed three people.

The man was identified as Charif Chekatt, a 29-year-old whom police had been searching for since Tuesday night's attack near Strasbourg's Christmas market, which also left 13 people wounded.

Earlier, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had said police had been attempting to arrest a man fitting the suspect's description when the man turned around and opened fire on them. Police responded, killing the shooter.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online, says the Islamic State group's Amaq news agency is claiming the gunman who opened fire near a Christmas market in Strasbourg as a "soldier" of the group.

The claim was published shortly after news emerged of a shootout with French police in Strasbourg Thursday night in which a man believed to be the suspect was killed. IS claims of responsibility have often been considered opportunistic in the past.

French police had been searching for 29-year-old Charif Chekatt, the suspected shooter during the Tuesday night that killed three people and wounded 13.

France's interior minister says the prosecutor in charge of terror-related investigations is heading to the scene of a police shootout in Strasbourg to confirm if a man killed by officers is the suspect in the attack near the city's Christmas market.

Christophe Castaner said from Strasbourg late Thursday that police spotted an individual who matched the description of 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. He has been the focus of a massive manhunt since Tuesday's attack.

Castaner says the moment they tried to arrest the man they spotted in the Neudorf neighbourhood, he started shooting. The minister says police returned fire, killing the man.

Neudorf is where the suspect last was seen after the Tuesday attack that killed three people.

Authorities say Chekatt was born in Strasbourg and appeared on a watch list of potential extremists.

A top French official says a suspect has been killed in a shootout with police in Strasbourg, but hasn't been confirmed as the alleged gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market on Tuesday.

The official, who could not be named because the operation was ongoing, said the suspect opened fire on police Thursday night, and police responded, killing him.

A local police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the man who opened fire was armed with a pistol and a knife.

The shooting occurred in the Neudorf neighbourhood, where police conducted a search earlier Thursday for Cherif Chekatt, a 29-year-old born in Strasbourg who police named as the suspected Christmas market gunman.

The Paris prosecutor's office says a fifth person has been arrested and placed in custody in connection with the investigation into Tuesday's shooting near Strasbourg's Christmas market.

The office said the man is a member of the "entourage" of main suspect Cherif Chekatt, 29, but not a family member. He was placed in custody on Thursday morning. The four others detained were Chekatt's parents and two of his brothers.

Three people died in Tuesday's attack, and 13 people were also injured.

A police operation has ended in the Strasbourg neighbourhood where a suspected gunman who killed three people and wounded 13 was last seen.

There was no word on what, if anything, the Thursday evening operation had uncovered. A police official had earlier said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, had taken action on a "supposition only" that suspect Cherif Chekatt could have been hiding in a building in the area. The official could not be identified because he was not authorized to disclose details.

Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekatt off Tuesday evening in the Neudorf neighbourhood, south of the eastern French city's centre, after the shooting near a Christmas market.

AP journalists and a French police official say a police operation is going on in the Strasbourg neighbourhood where a suspected Christmas market gunman was last seen.

One French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, are taking action on Thursday based on a "supposition only" that the suspect, 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, could be hiding in a nearby building. The official could not be identified because he was not allowed to disclose details on the investigation.

Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekatt off Tuesday evening in the Neudorf neighbourhood, south of the eastern French city's centre, after the shooting near the Christmas market. He is believed to be the gunman who left three dead and 13 wounded in an attack that night.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Brussels where he is attending a European summit, said Interior minister Christophe Castaner will travel to Strasbourg on Thursday evening.

This version corrects the spelling of the suspect's last name to Chekatt, not Chekkat.

French security forces are trying to catch the suspected Strasbourg gunman "dead or alive" as the city in eastern France mourned with flowers and lit candles left at the site of the attack near its famous Christmas market.

More than 700 officers were involved Thursday in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television.

Asked about instructions given to police forces, Griveaux said the focus was on catching the suspect "as soon as possible," no matter whether he was dead or alive, and "put an end to the manhunt."

Chekatt allegedly shouted "God is great!" in Arabic and sprayed gunfire during Tuesday's rampage near Strasbourg's Christmas market, which left three people dead and wounded 13 others. </s> A shooting at France’s largest Christmas market left three dead and 12 wounded Tuesday in what is now being investigated as a terror attack.

The gunman, who has not been apprehended, opened fire around 7 p.m. in Place Kleber square in Strasbourg, French news network BFMTV reported.

Video posted by the UK Mirror shows screaming shoppers fleeing as shots ring out in the distance.

Officials have not revealed the shooter’s name, but have said he has a criminal record and is on France’s “S” watchlist of suspected extremists.

He was due to be arrested earlier in the day for a separate attempted murder, sources told the AP.

BFM reported the gunman is 29 and a native of Strasbourg.

Meanwhile, France’s counter-terror prosecutor was en route to Strasbourg and is exploring charges for murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise.

Christmas markets are a popular target for Islamist terror attacks, such as the 2016, ISIS-inspired truck crash in a Berlin holiday market that left 12 dead and 50 injured.

Want news about Europe delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Europe Daily newsletter. Sign up here. </s> Two people have been murdered and another 12 injured after a terrorist opened fire at a famous Christmas market in Strasbourg.

The gunman had been flagged as a possible extremist previously and a massive manhunt is now underway as France raised its terror alert.

It was unclear if the market – a popular gathering place and the nucleus of an al-Qaida-linked plot in 2000 – was the intended target. The assailant got inside a security zone around the venue and opened fire from there, Mayor Roland Ries said on BFM television.

Initial reports said that four people had been killed and that figure was dropped to three and then again to two. It is not known why there was confusion among the authorities over the number of dead.

The market, France’s largest, is set up around the city’s cathedral during the Christmas season.

Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation. Strasbourg, located in eastern France, is home to the European Parliament, one of several places put on an emergency lockdown after the shooting.

The prefect of the Strasbourg region said the man identified as the alleged gunman was on a watch list of potentially radicalised people. Authorities did not name him publicly or provide details such as his age and nationality.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who travelled to Strasbourg, said the suspect had convictions in France and Germany for crimes unrelated to terrorism and served time in prison. He did not elaborate.

Hours before the shooting, French gendarmes went to the suspect’s home to arrest him, but he wasn’t there, Stephane Morisse of police union FGP said. They found explosive materials during a search, he said.

Many of Europe’s deadliest terror attacks in recent years took place in France. In response to Tuesday’s shooting, the government decided to take the country’s attack risk up a level on the official threat index and to send security reinforcements to Strasbourg, Castaner said early Wednesday.

Strasbourg, a city about 310 miles east of Paris on France’s border with Germany, promotes itself as the ‘Capital of Christmas’ and the market set up around the local cathedral is a holiday tradition. Two years ago, a Tunisian man drove a hijacked truck into a busy Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people in the German capital.

Some 350 officers and two helicopters were searching for the assailant, who had been radicalised for ‘several years’ and confronted law enforcement officers twice, exchanging fire, while he ‘sowed terror,’ Castaner said.

More than seven hours after the bloodshed, the regional prefect said 11 other people were injured, five of them seriously, downgrading Castaner’s earlier count of 12 injured.

The shooter was also shot and wounded by soldiers guarding the Christmas market, according to the FGP union’s Morisse.

French military spokesman Col. Patrik Steiger said the shooter didn’t seem to be aiming at soldiers patrolling in and around the market, but appeared to target civilians instead.

Witnesses described hearing gunshots, screams and shouts of police officers ordering people to stay indoors before the area fell silent and the officers fanned out.

‘I heard two or three shots at around 7.55 p.m., then I heard screams. I got close to the window. I saw people running. After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time,’ Yoann Bazard, 27, who lives in central Strasbourg.

‘I thought maybe it’s firecrackers,’ he said, speaking by phone. ‘And then, as it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams. … There were police or soldiers shouting `Get inside!’ and `Put your hands on your head.”

Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur was at a friend’s apartment when they heard the gunfire, which she at first mistook for firecrackers.

‘We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots,’ Belsoeur said.

Other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted `Go home! Go home!” to those outside, he said.

Another witness, Peter Fritz, told the BBC one of the people killed was a Thai tourist who was shot in the head and didn’t respond to lengthy attempts to revive him.

‘We tried our best to resuscitate him. We applied CPR. We dragged him into a restaurant close by,’ Fritz said.

He said it took more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, during which time an emergency doctor advised by telephone ‘that any further efforts would be futile.’

The victim ‘is still here in this restaurant but we have abandoned all hope for him,’ Fritz said.

France has been hit in recent years with high-profile extremist attacks, including the coordinated attacks at multiple Paris locations that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds in November 2015. A 2016 truck attack in Nice killed dozens.

Tuesday’s attack followed four weeks of protests against President Emmanuel Macron that have stretched the police forces deployed to clear blocked roads and to quell rioting, looting and other protest-related mayhem.

Macron adjourned a meeting at the presidential palace Tuesday night to monitor the emergency, his office said. The president tweeted ‘Solidarity of the whole nation for Strasbourg, our victims, their families’ and at midnight presided over a meeting at the Interior Ministry’s crisis centre.

The office of the Paris prosecutor, who is in charge of France’s terror investigations, said the Strasbourg probe was being conducted on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise. The latter charge suggests officials do not exclude links between the shooter and an extremist cell.

Authorities urged the public to remain indoors at the height of the drama. People dining out at restaurants were held in place for hours. So were thousands of basketball fans who attended a game at a sports stadium and European Union lawmakers in the locked down Parliament.

They eventually were allowed to leave the buildings. People with nowhere to go were offered shelter in a gymnasium, the prefect tweeted.

The Christmas market is set to stay closed Wednesday, when flags in Strasbourg will be flown at half-staff in mourning for the people killed, Mayor Ries said.

The attack revived memories of a new millennium terror plot targeting Strasbourg’s Christmas market. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a plot to blow up the market on the New Year’s Eve ushering in 2000..

The Algerian and French-Algerian suspects – including an alleged associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden – went on trial in October on charges they were involved in the foiled plot for the attack.

They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to nine years. </s> A man who had been flagged as a possible extremist sprayed gunfire near the famous Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg on Tuesday, killing three people, wounding up to a dozen and sparking a massive manhunt when he got away. France immediately raised its terror alert level.

It was unclear if the market — a popular gathering place and the nucleus of an al-Qaida-linked plot in 2000 — was the intended target. The assailant got inside a security zone around the venue and opened fire from there, Mayor Roland Ries said on BFM television.

The market, France's largest, is set up around the city's cathedral during the Christmas season.

Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation. Strasbourg, located in eastern France, is home to the European Parliament, one of several places put on an emergency lockdown after the shooting.

The prefect of the Strasbourg region said the man identified as the alleged gunman was on a watch list of potentially radicalized people. Authorities did not name him publicly or provide details such as his age and nationality.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who traveled to Strasbourg, said the suspect had convictions in France and Germany for crimes unrelated to terrorism and served time in prison. He did not elaborate.

Hours before the shooting, French gendarmes went to the suspect's home to arrest him, but he wasn't there, Stephane Morisse of police union FGP said. They found explosive materials during a search, he said.

Many of Europe's deadliest terror attacks in recent years took place in France. In response to Tuesday's shooting, the government decided to take the country's attack risk up a level on the official threat index and to send security reinforcements to Strasbourg, Castaner said early Wednesday.

Strasbourg, a city about 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Paris on France's border with Germany, promotes itself as the "Capital of Christmas" and the market set up around the local cathedral is a holiday tradition. Two years ago, a Tunisian man drove a hijacked truck into a busy Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people in the German capital.

Some 350 officers and two helicopters were searching for the assailant, who had been radicalized for "several years" and confronted law enforcement officers twice, exchanging fire, while he "sowed terror," Castaner said.

The death toll stood at three early Wednesday, the minister said. Two police union officials said earlier there were four victims. Officials did not explain the conflicting numbers.

More than seven hours after the bloodshed, the regional prefect said 11 other people were injured, five of them seriously, downgrading Castaner's earlier count of 12 injured.

The shooter was also shot and wounded by soldiers guarding the Christmas market, according to the FGP union's Morisse.

French military spokesman Col. Patrik Steiger said the shooter didn't seem to be aiming at soldiers patrolling in and around the market, but appeared to target civilians instead.

Witnesses described hearing gunshots, screams and shouts of police officers ordering people to stay indoors before the area fell silent and the officers fanned out.

"I heard two or three shots at around 7:55 p.m., then I heard screams. I got close to the window. I saw people running. After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time," Yoann Bazard, 27, who lives in central Strasbourg.

"I thought maybe it's firecrackers," he said, speaking by phone. "And then, as it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams. ... There were police or soldiers shouting 'Get inside!' and 'Put your hands on your head.'"

Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur was at a friend's apartment when they heard the gunfire, which she at first mistook for firecrackers.

"We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots," Belsoeur said,

Other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted 'Go home! Go home!'" to those outside, he said.

Another witness, Peter Fritz, told the BBC one of the four people killed was a Thai tourist who was shot in the head and didn't respond to lengthy attempts to revive him.

"We tried our best to resuscitate him. We applied CPR. We dragged him into a restaurant close by," Fritz said.

He said it took more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, during which time an emergency doctor advised by telephone "that any further efforts would be futile."

The victim "is still here in this restaurant but we have abandoned all hope for him," Fritz said.

France has been hit in recent years with high-profile extremist attacks, including the coordinated attacks at multiple Paris locations that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds in November 2015. A 2016 truck attack in Nice killed dozens.

Tuesday's attack followed four weeks of protests against President Emmanuel Macron that have stretched the police forces deployed to clear blocked roads and to quell rioting, looting and other protest-related mayhem.

Macron adjourned a meeting at the presidential palace Tuesday night to monitor the emergency, his office said. The president tweeted "Solidarity of the whole nation for Strasbourg, our victims, their families" and at midnight presided over a meeting at the Interior Ministry's crisis center.

The office of the Paris prosecutor, who is in charge of France's terror investigations, said the Strasbourg probe was being conducted on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise. The latter charge suggests officials do not exclude links between the shooter and an extremist cell.

Authorities urged the public to remain indoors at the height of the drama. People dining out at restaurants were held in place for hours. So were thousands of basketball fans who attended a game at a sports stadium and European Union lawmakers in the locked down Parliament.

They eventually were allowed to leave the buildings. People with nowhere to go were offered shelter in a gymnasium, the prefect tweeted.

The Christmas market is set to stay closed Wednesday, when flags in Strasbourg will be flown at half-staff in mourning for the people killed, Mayor Ries said.

The attack revived memories of a new millennium terror plot targeting Strasbourg's Christmas market. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a plot to blow up the market on the New Year's Eve ushering in 2000..

The Algerian and French-Algerian suspects — including an alleged associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden — went on trial in October on charges they were involved in the foiled plot for the attack.

They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to nine years. </s> STRASBOURG, France — A massive manhunt involving hundreds of police and soldiers was underway Wednesday for a suspected extremist who yelled “God is great!” in Arabic during a shooting spree around one of Europe’s most famous Christmas markets. The assault in the eastern French city of Strasbourg killed two, left one person brain dead and injured 12 others, authorities said.

Police union officials identified the suspected assailant as Frenchman Cherif Chekatt, a 29-year-old with a thick police record for crimes including armed robbery and monitored as a suspected religious radical by the French intelligence services. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss details of the large and ongoing investigation into the attack that set France on edge anew.

The suspect’s parents and two brothers, also known for radicalism, have been detained, according to a judicial official.

Reflecting Strasbourg’s international nature, the dead included a Thai tourist, and an Italian was reportedly among the wounded. The U.S. government, among others, warned citizens in the area to be vigilant. The city is home to the European Parliament and considers itself a capital of Europe — and promotes itself as the “capital of Christmas.”

Some 720 members of the security forces were hunting for the suspected gunman Wednesday. Prosecutor Remy Heitz said the suspect was shot in the arm during an exchange of fire with French soldiers during his rampage in the city center on Tuesday. He then took a taxi to another part of the city, boasting of the attack to the driver. There, he exchanged more gunfire with police and disappeared.

Heitz said the man attacked his victims with a handgun and a knife. Previously, French authorities had said the assailant killed three people, but Heitz said two people were confirmed dead while the third was brain dead. A further 12 people were injured, six of them gravely.

Witnesses described shots and screams after the gunman opened fire around the Christmas market Tuesday evening. They also reported that the assailant yelled “God is great!” in Arabic during the attack, the prosecutor added. For several hours swaths of the city were under lockdown.

Senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez said the suspect had been radicalized in prison and had been monitored by French intelligence services since his release in late 2015, because of his suspected religious extremism.

Nunez said on France-Inter radio that police sought to arrest the man on Tuesday morning, hours before the shooting, in relation to an attempted murder. He was not at home but five other people were detained, authorities said.

Heitz said police seized a grenade, a rifle and knives during the operation.

The government raised the security alert level and sent police reinforcements to Strasbourg, where hundreds of police and soldiers were involved in the search.

A terrorism investigation was opened, but the motive of the attack is unclear.

At Chekatt’s apartment, in an outer neighborhood of Strasbourg, the lock of the door was broken at his apartment. Police were guarding the building.

A neighbor, who asked not to be named because the gunman was still at large, said he was rarely home. She said she last saw him Monday from her window, which looks out on a common hallway, and he was with another man.

Young men from the apartment block said they knew him as someone who seemed destabilized by his time in prison. “You can just tell,” said one, lightly touching the side of his head. They, too, feared being publicly named because the gunman is still being hunted by police.

The suspected attacker’s more than two dozen convictions also included crimes in Germany and Switzerland, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press.

The German government says it has stepped up controls on the country’s border with France following the attack, but sees no change to the threat level in Germany.

Strasbourg’s Christmas market attracts visitors from around the world. A Thai national, 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, was one of the two killed, according to a Thai Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

The English-language website of the newspaper Khao Sod said Anupong was the owner of a noodle factory in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, and also sold clothes in the Thai capital’s garment district. It quoted his uncle as saying he and his wife had originally planned to visit Paris, but the “yellow vest” protests there prompted them to change plans and go to Strasbourg instead.

Italian media say Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was among the wounded, and is in critical condition. Italian daily La Repubblica reports that he was in Strasbourg to follow the European Parliamentary session.

The attack is a new blow to France, which saw a wave of Islamic extremist killings in 2015 and 2016. It came amid a month of protests against President Emmanuel Macron that have blocked roads around the country, led to rioting in the capital and put heavy strain on police.

While authorities urged people in the area to stay inside after Tuesday’s attack, Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told BFM television Wednesday that “life must go on” so that the city doesn’t cede to a “terrorist who is trying to disrupt our way of life.”

Many of Europe’s deadliest terror attacks in recent years have taken place in France. In response to Tuesday’s shooting, the government decided to take the country’s attack risk up a level on the official threat index.

Leicester and Corbet reported from Paris. Angela Charlton in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Kaweewit Kaewjinda in Bangkok and Colleen Barry in Milan also contributed to this report. </s> The Strasbourg gunman yelled “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic) as he opened fire on people enjoying an evening out at a Christmas market, the Paris public prosecutor told reporters.

Rémy Heitz said two people had been killed and one left brain-dead after the attack in the eastern French city on Tuesday.

Twelve were wounded, six seriously.

The man, named by local media as Chérif Chekatt, was known to authorities as having been radicalised in prison.

The 29-year-old was armed with a gun and a knife and escaped the area in a taxi, Mr Heitz said.

The attacker boasted to the driver – who has spoken to police – that he had killed 10 people, and said he had been injured in a firefight with soldiers.

Four people connected to the suspect had been detained overnight in Strasbourg, Mr Heitz added. Sources close to the investigation quoted by Reuters news agency said they were the suspect’s mother, father and two brothers.
• Strasbourg shooting: What we know so far
• Face to face with the gunman

Hundreds of officers are currently involved in the search for the gunman. France’s Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez earlier acknowledged he may no longer be in France.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the country had moved to a high level of alert, expanding police powers and increasing vigilance.

He added that border controls had been strengthened and security at all Christmas markets would be stepped up.

The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, has said the Christmas market will be closed on Wednesday and flags lowered to half-mast at the local town hall.

The attack unfolded at around 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday close to Strasbourg’s famed Christmas market near one of the central squares, Place Kléber, which attracts thousands of visitors at this time of year.

A woman called Audrey told France’s BFM TV how she came face to face with the killer after watching him shoot a man in the head.

The gunman then opened fire for a second time, and another man fell to ground.

Her friends began to run to safety, but Audrey was frozen to the spot. The gunman turned, and faced her – but then he too ran.

“Why didn’t he shoot at me?” she told the TV channel. “I don’t know. I think I was extremely lucky. As everyone was screaming he fled.”

According to Mr Heitz, as he fled he came into contact with four soldiers. He began firing at them and they fired back, apparently injuring him.

How did he escape?

He managed to reach a taxi which drove him away from the scene and dropped him in the vicinity of the police station in Neudorf, the area where he lives which sits on the border between Germany and France.

When he got out the vehicle, he fired at police officers.

What do we know about the gunman?

According to police – who refer to him as Chérif C – the gunman was born in Strasbourg and was already known to the security services as a possible terrorist threat.

He was the subject of a “fiche S”, a watchlist of people who represent a potential threat to national security.

He also had 27 convictions spanning across France, Germany and Switzerland, and has spent considerable time in prison as a result.

Police were seeking him on Tuesday morning in connection with another case, but did not find him at home.

However Mr Nuñez said his crimes had never been terrorism-related. But, he added, it was during one period in prison that he was indentified as having become radicalised.

“The fact he was a ‘fiche S’ did not pre-judge his level of dangerousness,” Mr Nuñez told France Inter.

A search of his home revealed a grenade, a rifle, four knives, two of which were hunting knives, and ammunition.

What about the victims?

Thai media have named Anupong Suebsamarn, 45, as one of the dead. He is believed to have been on holiday with his wife.

Not much else is known yet, apart from the fact no children were hurt and one soldier was slightly injured by a ricocheting bullet.

Strasbourg has been the target of jihadist plots in the past.

Not only does it have one of France’s oldest Christmas markets, but it is the official seat of the European Parliament. That parliament was in session at the time of Tuesday evening’s attack.

In 2000, the Christmas market was at the centre of a failed al-Qaeda plot. Ten Islamist militants were jailed four years later for their part in the planned New Year’s Eve attack.

Security has been tight there ever since the 2015 Paris attacks.

However, MEPs were determined to carry on the morning after the attack, with German MEP Jo Leinen posting a picture of singing and Christmas lights in the European Parliament. BBC </s> Hundreds of police officers are hunting a gunman after three people were killed and 12 others wounded in a shooting in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

 The suspect, who is known to security services, and is reportedly named Cherif Chekatt, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, escaped after exchanging fire with soldiers and armed police on Tuesday. He is believed to be injured.

 The shooting happened close to a popular Christmas market near one of the central squares, Place Kléber.

 France’s counterterrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation.

 However, the motive for the incident remains unclear.



 “He fought twice with our security forces,” French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.

 Confirming that three people had died, Mr Castaner said that border controls had been strengthened and security at all Christmas markets would be stepped up, with 350 security agents hunting for the gunman.

 He added that France had raised its security alert level to “emergency attack”.

 Six of those reportedly injured on Tuesday were said to be in a serious condition, while six others suffered light injuries, police said.

 Police added that the 29-year-old suspect was born in Strasbourg and was already known to the security services as a possible terrorist threat. </s> STRASBOURG, France (AP) - The Latest on the attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France (all times local):

AP journalists and a French police official say a police operation is going on in the Strasbourg neighborhood where a suspected Christmas market gunman was last seen.

One French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, are taking action on Thursday based on a "supposition only" that the suspect, 29-year-old Cherif Chekkat, could be hiding in a nearby building. The official could not be identified because he was not allowed to disclose details on the investigation.

Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekkat off Tuesday evening in the Neudorf neighborhood, south of the eastern French city's center, after the shooting near the Christmas market. He is believed to be the gunman who left three dead and 13 wounded in an attack that night.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Brussels where he is attending a European summit, said Interior minister Christophe Castaner will travel to Strasbourg on Thursday evening.

French security forces are trying to catch the suspected Strasbourg gunman "dead or alive" as the city in eastern France mourned with flowers and lit candles left at the site of the attack near its famous Christmas market.

More than 700 officers were involved Thursday in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television.

Asked about instructions given to police forces, Griveaux said the focus was on catching the suspect "as soon as possible," no matter whether he was dead or alive, and "put an end to the manhunt."

Chekatt allegedly shouted "God is great!" in Arabic and sprayed gunfire during Tuesday's rampage near Strasbourg's Christmas market, which left three people dead and wounded 13 others. </s> STRASBOURG, France — A man who had been flagged as a possible extremist sprayed gunfire near the city of Strasbourg’s famous Christmas market Tuesday, killing three people, wounding 12 and sparking a massive manhunt. France immediately raised its terror alert level.

It was unclear if the market – a popular gathering place that was the nucleus of an al-Qaida-linked plot in 2000 – was the intended target. The assailant got inside a security zone around the venue and opened fire from there, Mayor Roland Ries said on BFM television.

Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation. Strasbourg is home to the European Parliament, one of several places that was locked down after the shooting.

Authorities said they had identified a suspect, and he had a criminal record. The prefect of the Strasbourg region said the man also was on a watch list of people who had potentially radicalized. No other details about him were disclosed.

Hours before the shooting, French gendarmes went to the suspect’s home to arrest him, but he wasn’t there, Stephane Morisse of police union FGP said. They found explosive materials during a search, he said.

France, where most of Europe’s worst terror attacks of recent years took place, was raising its terror alert level and sending security reinforcements to Strasbourg, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said early Wednesday.

The attack in Strasbourg came two years after a Tunisian man drove a hijacked truck into a busy Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people. Strasbourg, which promotes itself as the “Capital of Christmas,” is located on France’s border with Germany, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Paris. The market is set up around the city’s cathedral during the Christmas season.

Some 350 security forces and two helicopters were searching for the alleged assailant, who had been radicalized for “several years” and confronted law enforcement officers twice while he “sowed terror” in Strasbourg, Castaner said.

The death toll stood at three early Wednesday, he said. Two police union officials said earlier there were four victims. Officials did not explain the conflicting numbers.

A dozen more people were wounded, half of them in “absolute emergency” critical condition, Castaner said. The shooter was also shot and wounded by soldiers guarding the Christmas market, according to Stephane Morisse of police union FGP.

French military spokesman Col. Patrik Steiger said the shooter didn’t seem to be aiming for the soldiers patrolling in and around the market, but appeared to target civilians instead.

Witnesses described hearing gunshots, screams and shouts of police officers ordering people to stay indoors before the area fell silent and the officers fanned out.

“I heard two or three shots at around 7:55 p.m. (1855 GMT), then I heard screams. I got close to the window. I saw people running. After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time,” Yoann Bazard, 27, who lives in central Strasbourg.

“I thought maybe it’s firecrackers,” he said, speaking by phone. “And then, as it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams. … There were police or soldiers shouting ‘Get inside!’ and ‘Put your hands on your head.'”

Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur was at a friend’s apartment when they heard the gunfire, which she at first mistook for firecrackers.

“We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots,” Belsoeur said,

Other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted ‘Go home! Go home!'” to those outside, he said.

Another witness, Peter Fritz, told the BBC one of the four people killed was a Thai tourist who was shot in the head and didn’t respond to lengthy attempts to revive him.

“We tried our best to resuscitate him. We applied CPR. We dragged him into a restaurant close by,” Fritz said.

He said it took more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, during which time an emergency doctor advised by telephone “that any further efforts would be futile.”

The victim “is still here in this restaurant but we have abandoned all hope for him,” Fritz said.

France previously endured several high-profile extremist attacks, including the coordinated attacks at multiple Paris locations that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds in November 2015. A 2016 truck attack in Nice killed dozens.

President Emmanuel Macron adjourned a meeting at the presidential palace Tuesday night to monitor the emergency, his office said, indicating the gravity of the attack.

Castaner and the Paris prosecutor, who is in charge of anti-terror probes in France, headed to Strasbourg. The prosecutor’s office said the investigation was being conducted on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise charges, suggesting officials think the alleged shooter may have links to extremists.

In multiple neighborhoods of Strasbourg, the French Interior Ministry urged the public to remain indoors. Local authorities tweeted for the public to “avoid the area of the police station,” which is close to the city’s Christmas market.

European Parliament spokesman Jaume Duch said that “the European Parliament has been closed and no one can leave until further notice.” It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were inside.

The attack revived memories of a new millennium terror plot targeting Strasbourg’s Christmas market. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a plot to blow up the market on the New Year’s Eve ushering in 2000..

The Algerian and French-Algerian suspects – including an alleged associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden – went on trial in October on charges they were involved in the foiled plot for the attack.

They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to nine years.
A gunman kills two people and injures 14 others in a mass shooting in Strasbourg, France, during the annual Christmas market. The shooter flees the scene but is identified by police as a known extremist. The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism.