Strasbourg shooter: French police continue their hunt for the suspect
A Home Office spokeswoman told CNN it was an operation involving “checks”.
Since the shooting, authorities have called Tuesday’s incident a terrorist attack.
The suspect, identified as Cherif Chekatt, 29, has a long criminal history that includes 27 convictions in France, Germany and Switzerland, mainly for theft and violence.
On Tuesday, more than 700 police and military personnel from three European countries joined in the hunt for Chekatt.
Swiss police said they were “on alert” and in close contact with their French counterparts, while German federal police said they were carrying out intensive search efforts on roads and railways, which could cause delays for people crossing the border. French anti-terror police have also joined the search, as efforts stretch into a second day.
A curfew in the town in eastern France, located on the border with Germany, has been lifted but the police have called for vigilance. Border security has been tightened and a perimeter has been set up around Strasbourg, but authorities did not know on Wednesday whether the suspect was still in France.
Strasbourg police said on Thursday that the suspect had killed three people and injured 13 people, including five seriously and eight slightly injured.
The alleged shooter was known to prison authorities for his radicalization and proselytizing behavior in custody in 2015, Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said, adding that he had been incarcerated several times in the past.
French prosecutors said the suspect shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar”, which means “God is the greatest”, at the time of the attack.
The man was already known to security services as a potential threat, police said.
The suspect’s father, mother and two brothers are in custody and being questioned by police, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
The attack prompted France to raise its national security threat level to its highest status of an “emergency terrorist attack”.
“What happened last night is unquestionably an attack, a form of terrorist attack,” Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told CNN on Wednesday.
Suspect injured in shootout
Strasbourg’s famous Christmas market is one of the oldest in Europe and attracts millions of visitors every year. The suspect entered the perimeter of the market via the city’s Corbeau bridge and began shooting passers-by on rue des Orfèvres around 8 p.m. local time, when many were out doing their Christmas shopping.
Anti-terrorism police descended on the market and attempted to apprehend the suspect as he crossed several streets. He exchanged gunfire with the security forces, suffering from an arm injury. “Throughout this journey he opened fire several times with a handgun and used a knife, both of which he used to seriously injure and kill,” Heitz said, speaking in Strasbourg.
The suspect then fled by taxi and headed for the Neudorf district of the city, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. Heitz had previously said the destination was the Neuhof, a district further from Strasbourg.
“The taxi driver said he saw him with a handgun and he had injuries,” Heitz said. The man exchanged gunfire with police again after leaving the taxi, he added.
The anti-terrorism section of the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, Heitz said.
The shooter was known to the police
The “Fiche S” is a French terrorism and radicalization watch list that includes thousands of people, some of whom are under active surveillance, meaning they are on the radar of law enforcement.
French gendarmes had tried to bring him in for questioning on Tuesday morning before the attack, but found he was not at home, a French national police spokesperson told CNN, without providing further details. details.
The Interior Ministry of the German state of Baden-Württemberg confirmed on Wednesday that the suspect was convicted of burglary and aggravated theft by a court in Singen in 2016 and subsequently spent time in a prison in the city of Freiburg. He was deported to France in 2017.
German authorities are cooperating closely with their French partners, an interior ministry spokesman said, adding that it cannot be ruled out that the suspect crossed the open border. Swiss officials also said they were on high alert.
The German Federal Criminal Office said the suspect was not known in Germany as a radical Islamist.
A spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Police, Cathy Maret, told CNN the alleged attacker was well known to authorities, having been arrested and convicted multiple times in Switzerland for crimes including burglary, robbery and robbery. violence. He was not on their radar as a radical Islamist or for a narcotics violation, she said.
Witness: “It was a moment of terror”
“I left a few ladies in the building where I’m staying these days and then they were accompanied by the police,” he said. “It was a moment of terror.”
The injured were transported to a hospital in Strasbourg.
In tribute to the victims of the shooting, the Eiffel Tower in Paris went dark at midnight local time.
The Christmas market was closed on Wednesday and the flags were lowered.
All gatherings and demonstrations throughout the Strasbourg conurbation have been banned until further notice, announced the prefecture of the Grand Est and Bas-Rhin Region.
CNN’s Saskya Vandoorne reported from Strasbourg, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London and Helen Regan from Hong Kong. CNN’s Eva Tapiero, Tom Hertig, Sandrine Amiel, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Stephanie Halasz, Braden Goyette and Natalie Gallon contributed to this report.