Everything we know about the manhunt for the Strasbourg Christmas market attacker

A manhunt is underway Wednesday for a gunman who opened fire on a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg, killing three people and wounding thirteen others.

The suspect, a Strasbourg-born 29-year-old named Cherif Chekatt, was on a French radicalization watchlist known as the “Fiche S,” as a potential terror threat.

France raised its national security threat level to its highest status, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, adding that 600 officers were trying to locate the armed fugitive, amid fears of a follow-up attack.

Shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday, the gunman, armed with an automatic pistol and a knife, opened fire at Strasbourg’s famed Christmas market, one of the oldest in Europe. He shot three dead and injured 13, leaving eight people seriously wounded.

According to witnesses, the man yelled "Allahu akbar" as he launched the attack, officials said.

As terrified shoppers fled in panic, or took shelter in restaurants and bars, soldiers patrolling the area as part of regular anti-terror operations raced to the scene and exchanged fire in two clashes with the suspect.

Police say the gunman was wounded, but managed to flee in a taxi. France’s BFM TV reported that the taxi took him to near the German border, but he hasn’t been seen since.

Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said it was possible that Chekatt had fled to Germany.

The scene of the attack was just a few kilometers from the European Parliament, which was placed in lockdown for the duration.

Chekatt was known to police in France and Germany for non-terror-related offending, said Castaner. He is believed to have been radicalized in prison.

According to Germany’s Der Spiegel, he had served time in a German jail for a serious theft offence until 2017, when he was deported to France. Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said Wednesday he had 27 prior convictions.

It's a profile familiar from other Islamist attacks in Europe in recent years, where the attackers have a track record of violent crime, and have been radicalized in prison, said Kit Nicholl, a security analyst for IHS Markit.

French police had searched Chekatt’s house Tuesday morning before the attack as part of an investigation into a botched armed robbery, officials said. He was not found at the residence, through a rifle and a stun gun were discovered. Nicholl said the attempt to arrest Chekatt was likely to have precipitated the attack.

Five of Chekatt’s suspected accomplices in the failed robbery were arrested shortly before the Christmas market attack, said Nunez.

Hundreds of officers have been deployed in the hunt for Chekatt, with border controls stepped up and a perimeter established around Strasbourg — although officials acknowledge he may have left the country. Specialist anti-terror prosecutors in Paris have opened an investigation, with Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, telling reporters the attacker may have chosen the target for its religious significance.

“The government has raised its security threat to the highest level and is bolstering border controls,” Castaner told reporters, adding that security at all Christmas markets would be stepped up to prevent copycat attacks.

Security has been tight at Europe’s Christmas markets since an ISIS-supporting failed asylum seeker killed 12 people and injured 56 with a truck in December 2016.

France has weathered a string of Islamist terror attacks since early 2015, claiming more than 240 lives, and the latest deaths have sparked frustration with the government’s response to terror threat.

“How many terror attacks by those on the ‘S’ watchlist do we have to suffer before adapting our law to the fight against terrorism. What are we waiting for to finally wage war to eradicate Islamic fundamentalism that has declared war on us?” said Laurent Wauquiez, leader for the right-wing Republicans party.

Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that the attack highlighted the need to ramp up border security in the U.S. "Another very bad terror attack in France. We are going to strengthen our borders even more," he wrote.

Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that the attack highlighted the need to ramp up border security in the U.S. "Another very bad terror attack in France. We are going to strengthen our borders even more," he wrote.

Cover image: Baden-Würrtemberg, Kehl: Police officers inspect an attack in the area of the Strasbourg Christmas market cars from Strasbourg. (Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images)