Cherif Chekatt yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ during Christmas market attack

Hundreds of security forces are combing eastern France for a 29-year-old man with a long criminal record who shouted “God is great!” in Arabic and sprayed gunfire during a deadly rampage in Strasbourg’s famous Christmas market, officials said.

Tuesday night’s attack at France’s largest Christmas market, which killed two people, left a third brain-dead and injured 12, was a stark reminder to a nation wounded by previous assaults that terrorism remains a threat, even as anti- government protests roil the country.

National police distributed a photo of the wounded fugitive, identified as Cherif Chekatt, with the warning: “Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene.”

A massive manhunt involving hundreds of police and soldiers was underway for a suspected extremist who yelled “God is great!” in Arabic, or Allahu Akbar, 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.

Prosecutor Remy Heitz said the suspected gunman was shot in the arm during an exchange of fire with French soldiers during his rampage in the city centre 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.

Mr Heitz said the man attacked his victims with a handgun and a knife.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the French native had run-ins with police starting at age 10 and his first conviction at age 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.

The emerging profile pointed to an increasingly common hybrid extremist who moves from acts of delinquency to sowing terror.

Chekatt was flagged as a potential extremist, but Castaner said “the signs had been weak.” A terrorism investigation was opened, but the exact motive remained unclear.

The suspect’s parents and two brothers, also known for radicalism, were detained, a judicial official said.

The dead included a Thai tourist, 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry.

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.

Khao Sod quoted his uncle as saying he and his wife had originally planned to visit Paris, but the protests there prompted them to change plans and go to Strasbourg instead.

One Italian was reported to be among the wounded. Italian media said Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was in critical condition. Italian daily La Repubblica reported he was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament.

After initially reporting that three people had died, authorities revised that and said one was brain-dead, while 12 people were wounded, six of them gravely. About 720 police, soldiers and SWAT team officers in Strasbourg were being reinforced with 500 more soldiers and another 1,300 in the coming days to guard public places, especially other Christmas markets, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said after a crisis meeting. The government raised the security level after the attack.

The attack in the heart of old Strasbourg, near its famous cathedral and within the Christmas market that draws many tourists, unsettled the border city that also is home to the European Parliament.

Senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez said Chekatt had been radicalised in prison and had been monitored by French intelligence services since his release in late 2015, because of his suspected religious extremism. Nunez told France-Inter radio that police went to his apartment in an outer neighborhood of Strasbourg on Tuesday morning. Authorities said he was not there, although five other people were detained.

Police seized a grenade, a rifle and knives in the operation, Heitz said, and began guarding the apartment building.

A neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the gunman was still at large, said Chekatt was rarely home and last saw him Monday from her window, which looks out on a common hallway, 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, touching the side of his head. They, too, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was still on the run.

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 on 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.”

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

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Eleonore Petermann said there’s no reason to stay away from Christmas markets in Germany.

A Christmas market in Berlin was targeted in a deadly attack two years ago.

Ms Petermann and Germany’s justice ministry said that German authorities had no information on links between the suspected attacker, who previously spent prison time in Germany for robbery, and Islamic extremists.