A man suspected of being the gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market in Strasbourg died in a shootout with police on Thursday following a two-day manhunt.<\/b>
\nBy Elaine Ganley, Samuel Petrequin and Mstyslav Chernov, Associated Press
December 13 2018 10:32 PM
A man suspected of being the gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market in Strasbourg died in a shootout with police on Thursday following a two-day manhunt.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the dead man\u2019s identity has not been confirmed yet.
But Mr Castaner said the \u201cindividual corresponds to the description of the person sought since Tuesday night\u201d, 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt.
A top police official also said \u201ceverything indicates\u201d the man was Chekatt.
Mr Castaner said the suspect opened fire on police when officials tried to arrest him.
\u201cThe moment they tried to arrest him, he turned around and opened fired. They replied,\u201d Mr Castaner said.
A local police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man who shot at police was armed with a pistol and a knife.
The shooting occurred in the Neudorf neighbourhood of Strasbourg, where police searched intensively earlier Thursday for Chekatt.
Chekatt is accused of killing three people and wounding 13 on Tuesday night.
Mr 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.
Asked about the instructions they received, Mr Griveaux said the focus was catching Chekatt \u201cas soon as possible\u201d, dead or alive, and to \u201cput an end to the manhunt\u201d.
Security forces, including the elite Raid squad, spent two hours searching in Neudorf on Thursday based on \u201csupposition only\u201d 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 \u201cGod is great!\u201d 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.
So far, five people have been arrested and remanded in custody in connection with the investigation, including Chekatt\u2019s parents and two of his brothers.
The Paris prosecutor\u2019s office said the fifth, who was arrested Thursday at an undisclosed location, was a member of Chekatt\u2019s \u201centourage\u201d but not a family member.
Police distributed a photo of Chekatt, with the warning: \u201cIndividual dangerous, above all do not intervene.\u201d
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 the age of 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\u2019s 500-year-old cathedral Thursday evening to mourn and seek comfort.
\u201cEvil does not prevail,\u201d Archbishop Luc Ravel said.
\u201cAnd the message of Christmas has not been contradicted but rather confirmed by Tuesday\u2019s dramatic night: Evil and good are both there, but in the end the good will have last word.\u201d
Strasbourg\u2019s usually busy streets were eerily empty on 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.
\u201cYou can feel a very heavy atmosphere due all these events,\u201d said resident Lucille Romance.
\u201cPeople are in a state of shock and are avoiding getting out of their house.\u201d
The Islamic State\u2019s Amaq news agency claimed the gunman was a \u201csoldier\u201d of the group.
Press Association
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