The man suspected of killing at least three people and wounding 13 others at Strasbourg’s famed Christmas market has been killed by French police, following a shoot-out not far from the scene of Tuesday’s attack.

Cherif Chekatt, 29, was shot dead on Thursday evening, two days after he first disappeared sparking a massive manhunt involving hundreds of police officers, soldiers and anti-terror specialists from three European countries.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said police recognized a man who looked like Chekatt walking on the street in Strasbourg’s Neudorf district on Thursday night and approached him. He opened fire on officers when they tried to question him, he said.

“As I am speaking to you, I am thinking about the victims and the wounded. I am thinking of those close to them. I am thinking of Strasbourg and France that was hit by this terrible attack,” Castaner said.

On Thursday, Strasbourg police said the death toll from the attack had risen to three, after one person succumbed to their injuries. Five people remain in serious condition with eight others suffering light injures.

The hunt prompted a curfew in the eastern French city near the German border and forced the country to raise its national security threat level to its highest status: “emergency terror attack.”

French prosecutors said the suspect shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is greatest,” at the time of the attack.

“It’s relief for the people of Strasbourg to know that the attacker has been killed,” Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries said, adding that the Christmas market would reopen on Friday.

The French National Police thanked the public for their assistance in finding Chekatt.

“Thank you for your alerts which allowed us to find the wanted individual,” the National Police said on Twitter.

Earlier on Thursday, Paris prosecutor’s office said that a fifth person was taken into custody in relation to the attack. “At this stage there are five people in custody,” a spokesperson said.

Authorities said Chekatt entered the perimeter of the market, one of the oldest in Europe, by the city’s Corbeau Bridge and started shooting and stabbing passers-by on the Rue des Orfevres around 8 p.m., when many were in the middle of their Christmas shopping.

Anti-terror police flooded the market and tried to arrest the suspected gunman. He exchanged fire with security forces, suffering an injury to his arm. The suspected gunman then jumped into a taxi and fled the scene, Heitz said.

On Thursday, French police evacuated buildings and cordoned off the area close to where Chekatt had fled. The gunman’s father, mother and two brothers were also questioned by police, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

Checkatt was already known to security services as a possible threat, police said. He has an extensive criminal background that includes 27 convictions in France, Germany and Switzerland, mostly for acts of robbery and violence.

A spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Police, Cathy Maret, told CNN that Chekatt was well known to authorities there, having been arrested and convicted several times in Switzerland for crimes such as break-ins, theft and violence. He was not on their radar as a radical Islamist or for narcotics violations, she said.

In 2017, he was deported from Germany to France after the Interior Ministry in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg confirmed he had been convicted of break-ins and serious theft in 2016 and spent time in a German prison. The German Federal Criminal Office said the suspect was not known in Germany as a radical Islamist.

However, Chekatt was known to French prison officials for being radicalized and for his proselytizing behavior in detention in 2015, Paris prosecutor Heitz said, adding that he had been incarcerated multiple times.

He was also on a French watch list called a “Fiche S” surveillance file. The “Fiche S” is a French terror and radicalization watch list that includes thousands of people, some of whom are under active surveillance, meaning they are on law enforcement’s radar.

Hours before the attack, French gendarmes tried to bring Chekatt in for questioning but found he wasn’t home, a spokesperson for France’s National Police told CNN earlier this week, without providing further details.

Chekatt was born in Strasbourg, according to CNN affiliate BFM. </s> The state-run TV channel France 2 showed an interview with Abdelkrim Chekatt on Saturday night, two days after the son was killed in a confrontation with three police officers in his childhood neighborhood in Strasbourg following a massive manhunt. Four people died in the Tuesday night attack. </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 -- 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> France's interior minister on Friday dismissed a claim by the Islamic State group that it was responsible for a shooting spree at a Christmas market in Strasbourg after the gunman was shot dead by police, ending a 48-hour manhunt.

STRASBOURG: France's interior minister on Friday (Dec 14) dismissed a claim by the Islamic State militant group that a gunman who killed four people at a Christmas market in Strasbourg was one of its "soldiers", as investigators sought to understand his motives.

Attending the reopening of the Christmas market, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said a Twitter post by the IS propaganda wing saying Cherif Chekatt was one of its "soldiers" was "completely opportunistic".

"We're dealing with a man who was consumed by evil," he told reporters after touring the famed market.

President Emmanuel Macron was to visit later in the day after attending a European Union summit in Brussels, his office said.

Officials praised the massive public help and quick police reaction that led to the death of 29-year-old Chekatt, a career criminal with 27 convictions in four countries, late on Thursday.

He was tracked down at around 9pm (2000 GMT) when a police patrol spotted him on a street in the Neudorf district where he was last seen after his gun and knife attack on Tuesday night.

Around 800 people called in tips to a hotline after the authorities released his name and photo on Wednesday night.

Two calls in particular were "decisive" in finding Chekatt, France's anti-terror prosecutor Remy Heitz said.

The information allowed police to cordon off an area while a helicopter equipped with a heat-seeking camera overflew the gardens.

Spotted by a police patrol, Chekatt tried to escape by entering a building.

Unable to get in the door, he turned and shot at the three officers with a handgun when they tried to approach.

Two police officers returned fire and killed him, Heitz told a press conference in Strasbourg.

Four people were killed and 12 injured, including one who has been declared brain-dead and another still in critical condition, according to the latest toll.

Two more people were detained for questioning overnight, bringing to seven the number in custody, including Chekatt's parents and two brothers, Heitz said.

Another brother, who like Chekatt was on France's anti-terror watchlist for suspected extremists, has been detained in Algeria, sources close to the inquiry told AFP.

Police are now focusing their investigation on whether Chekatt had any help in carrying out his attack or while on the run.

Questions remain over how Chekatt was able to evade the tight security perimeter set up around the Christmas market, which has long been a prime target for jihadist groups.

Around 500 police, security agents and soldiers control access at checkpoints on the bridges leading to the river island, a UN World Heritage site, that houses the market.

The goal is to "create a bubble with searches at the entry points," Mayor Roland Ries said after the attack, while regional government representative Jean-Luc Marx said he had not determined "any flaws in the security measures".

Many residents, however, were not convinced after Chekatt managed to slip through the controls with a handgun and a knife.

"It doesn't surprise me," said Emeline, 38, who works in the city centre. "You wear a heavy coat, put something in the bottom of your bag. You can bring in what you want."

France has been on high alert since the start of a wave of militant attacks in 2015, which prompted a threefold surge in the security budget for the market, to €1 million.

Chekatt, a Strasbourg native who lived in a rundown apartment block a short drive from the city centre, was flagged by French security forces in 2015 as a possible Islamic extremist.

But Defence Minister Florence Parly rejected criticism that Chekatt's presence on the extremist watchlist should have prompted a more proactive reaction from the authorities.

"You can't ... arrest someone just because you think he might do something," Parly told Radio Classique on Friday.

'WE CAN'T SEARCH EVERYONE'

Strasbourg's deputy mayor Alain Fontanel admitted that despite patrols, plainclothes police, profilers and video surveillance, "the risks can be reduced, but not eliminated".

"We can't pat down and search everyone, only carry out random checks," he said, adding that huge lines at checkpoints would only create a new potential target for terrorists.

"Someone who wants to get in an area this big with a weapon can do it," he said.

Such reasoning was little comfort to the residents and tourists who flock to the Strasbourg market.



"We thought this would happen only in Nice or at the Bataclan, but here it is at home," said Sylvain, who works at another market in the city centre.

He was referring to a truck attack which killed over 80 people at Bastille Day festivities in the French Riviera city of Nice in 2016, and the massacre in the capital's Bataclan concert hall in November 2015. </s> Armed police have launched a security operation in Strasbourg as they hunt for a gunman suspected of attacking a Christmas market.

The attack left three people dead and wounded 13 others, including five who are in a serious condition.

More than 700 officers are involved in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt and prosecutors have opened a terror investigation into Tuesday’s attack.

A police operation took place in the Strasbourg neighbourhood where Chekatt was last seen.

A French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, took action based on a “supposition only” that Chekkat could be hiding in a nearby building but the operation ended without any news of his capture.

However, the Paris prosecutor’s office said a fifth person had been arrested and placed in custody in connection with the investigation.

A spokesman said the man is a member of Chekatt’s “entourage” but not a family member and he was placed in custody on Thursday morning. The four others detained were Chekatt’s parents and two of his brothers.

Asked about instructions given to police forces searching for Chekatt, government spokesman Benjamin 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”.

Police have distributed a photo of Chekatt, who was wounded in an exchange of fire with security forces, with the warning: “Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene.”

Chekatt allegedly shouted “God is great!” in Arabic and sprayed gunfire from a security zone near the Christmas market.

The government raised the terror alert level nationwide and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across France to help patrol streets and secure crowded events.

Mr Griveaux also called on the “yellow vest” protesters not to take to the streets, as some members of the movement have planned a fifth round of demonstrations on Saturday across France to demand tax relief.

Strasbourg was in mourning, with candles lit and flowers left at the site of the attack. The Christmas market was closed at least again on Thursday.

On Wednesday evening, people prayed and sang in the nearby Protestant Church Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune.

Pastor Philippe Eber said this is a moment “to think of those who died in this city because of violence. We also are thinking about all of those who weep for them, the families”.

Strasbourg resident Tassia Konstantinidis said “it’s important to have a period of mourning and to remember the victims”.

The dead included Thai tourist Anupong Suebsamarn, who was 45.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said one Italian was among the wounded, in critical condition. The Europhonica radio consortium said Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament when he was shot.

French authorities said that the suspect, born in Strasbourg, had run-ins with police from the age of 10 and his first conviction was at 13.

Chekatt had been convicted 27 times, mostly in France but also in Switzerland and Germany, for crimes including armed robbery. He had been flagged for extremism and was on a watch list. </s> STRASBOURG, France (AP) — A top French official says a man has been killed in a shootout with police in Strasbourg, but he has not been confirmed as the suspected gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market.

The official, who could not be named because the operation was ongoing, said the dead man opened fire on police Thursday night and officers fired back, 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 neighborhood of Strasbourg, where police searched intensively earlier Thursday for Cherif Chekatt, a 29-year-old suspected of being the Christmas market gunman.

Chekatt is accused of killing three people and wounded 13 on Tuesday night. 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.

Asked about the instructions they received, Griveaux said the focus was catching Chekatt “as soon as possible,” dead or alive, and to “put an end to the manhunt.”

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.

Prosecutors opened a terror investigation. 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.

Asked about the instructions they received, Griveaux said the focus was catching Chekatt “as soon as possible,” dead or alive, and to “put an end to the manhunt.”

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.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the fifth, who was arrested Thursday at an undisclosed location, was a member of Chekatt’s “entourage” but not a family member.

Police distributed a photo of Chekatt, with the warning: “Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene.”

France has raised its three-stage threat index to the highest level since the attack and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across the country to help patrol streets and secure crowded events.

French authorities said Chekatt, born in Strasbourg, appeared on a watch list of people flagged for extremist views. They said he had 27 criminal convictions, receiving the first at age 13.

The people who died in the attack included a Thai tourist, 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry. Five of the wounded were in serious condition, the prefecture of the Strasbourg region said.

French President Emmanuel Macron was in Brussels on Thursday for a European Union summit. EU leaders held a minute of silence for the latest victims of a mass shooting in France.

Hundreds of people gathered in Strasbourg’s 500-year-old cathedral Thursday evening to mourn and seek comfort.

“Evil does not prevail,” Archbishop Luc Ravel said. “And the message of Christmas has not been contradicted but rather confirmed by Tuesday’s dramatic night: Evil and good are both there, but in the end the good will have last word.”

Strasbourg’s usually busy streets were eerily empty Thursday morning, with a heavy police and military presence. Some lit candles and brought flowers to a makeshift memorial at the site of the attack.

“You can feel a very heavy atmosphere due all these events,” said resident Lucille Romance. “People are in a state of shock and are avoiding getting out of their house.”

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> French hunt for possible accomplices of Strasbourg attacker

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French police have killed the man who they believed attacked Strasbourg's Christmas market but investigators kept digging Friday for possible accomplices in a city known for a high concentration of potential extremists.

A fourth victim of Tuesday night's attack on the biggest Christmas market in France died Friday. The dead included a Thai tourist and a 29-year-old Italian journalist. A dozen other people were wounded.

The market reopened Friday in a bid to reclaim a festive spirit after being closed for two days after the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron paid a visit, arriving after a European summit in Brussels to offer his condolences to the wounded and victims' families and to salute security forces. He spoke with the three police officers who less than 24 hours earlier shot and killed Cherif Chekatt, the attack suspect.

For three days, Macron has faced back-to-back national emergencies, dealing with the Christmas market attack and in the midst of a month of grassroots protests over the cost of living that have grown increasingly violent and have devastated parts of the French capital.

The government has implored the French not to take to the streets Saturday, evoking the Strasbourg tragedy and the security situation that has strapped soldiers and police.

Chekatt, the 29-year-old Strasbourg native, was killed Thursday night in a confrontation with three police officers in his childhood neighborhood after a massive manhunt.

The depth of his radicalization and connections remained unclear, but his path seemed to reflect an increasingly common hybrid European extremist who moves from delinquency to sowing terror.

The Islamic State group's Amaq news agency claimed Chekatt was a "soldier" of the group but Interior Minister Christophe Castaner rejected the claim as "totally opportunistic."

Investigators are now trying to identify "eventual accomplices or co-authors who could have helped or encouraged him in preparing his move into action," prosecutor Remy Heitz, in charge of terrorism cases in France, told reporters at a news conference Friday.

He said seven people were in custody, including four of Chekatt's family members and three in his "close entourage" — two of them detained Thursday night.

"We want to reconstruct the past 48 hours in order to find out whether he got some support," Heitz said.

The Strasbourg shooting was the latest in a series of deadly attacks that have claimed more than 200 lives in France since 2015. Like other attack sites, the Christmas market was heavy with symbolism.

"This Christmas market is part of our history. It's part of our common events and belongs to all the French people," Castaner said during a walk-through at its reopening. "And this morning, we wanted to show, as we walked down the lanes, that we always know how to get our head up again."

Macron suggested while in Brussels that authorities were working to clarify why Chekatt was not stopped beforehand. He had been on a French intelligence watch list for radicalism and was convicted 27 times for criminal offenses — the first time at age 13 — mainly in France but also in Germany and Switzerland.

French police tried and failed Tuesday morning to arrest him in a case of attempted homicide.

Macron told reporters Friday in Brussels that France should look at "the consequences" of any police failures and work on "what could be improved."

Extremism is not a new phenomenon in Strasbourg, where more than 200 people are on watch lists for potential radicalization or already radicalized, a Strasbourg police official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and that figure could not be officially confirmed.

Strasbourg's Christmas market has been a previous target. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a foiled plot to blow up the market on New Year's Eve 2000.

Six youths from Strasbourg have been arrested after returning home from Middle East battle zones, part of a group of 14 reported to have left to join the jihad. As early as 2012, Strasbourg had harbored Islamic militant cells planning action elsewhere in France.

Heitz, the anti-terrorism prosecutor, provided more details about the police operation that led to Chekatt's death Thursday evening.

He said two crucial tips came in from residents in Strasbourg's Neudorf neighborhood. Three officers patrolling in Neudorf then spotted a man corresponding to the suspect's description. Noticing their marked police car, the suspect tried unsuccessfully to enter a building. When police officers identified themselves, Chekatt turned abruptly and opened fire on them.

Ganley reported from Paris. Samuel Petrequin in Paris and Angela Charlton in Brussels contributed. </s> PARIS (AP) — The French government spokesman says security forces are trying to catch the suspected shooter dead or alive, two days after an attack near Strasbourg’s Christmas market.

Benjamin Griveaux said on CNews television that more than 700 officers are involved in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. Police have distributed a photo of the wounded fugitive.

The attack in Strasbourg killed two, left one person brain dead and wounded 12 others.

The government raised the terror alert level nationwide and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across France to help patrol streets and secure crowded events.

Griveaux also called on the “yellow vest” protesters not to take to the streets, as some members of the movement have planned a fifth round of demonstrations on Saturday across France to demand tax relief.
Chérif Chekatt, the perpetrator of an attack in Strasbourg, France, two days ago, which killed two and wounded 14, is found and killed by French police.