Strasbourg shooting: at least two killed near Christmas market
French police say several more injured after shooting on Tuesday evening in city centre
Police said the lone gunman had struck in different places around the city centre just before 8pm where the market, which attracts millions of tourists every year, is taking place.
Witnesses said he had fired a first series of rounds near the market around 8pm then a second round a few metres further on.
“There were gunshots and people running everywhere,” one local shopkeeper told BFM TV. “It lasted about 10 minutes.”
Two of the injured were said to be in a critical condition.
The public prosecutor declared the incident to be “terrorism” and announced an inquiry had been opened into “assassination and attempted assassination”.
France’s interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said the gunman “has been identified” and was known to police who were searching for him.
The centre of Strasbourg went into lockdown as police asked residents to stay home and restaurants were ordered to close and not let customers leave.
The European Parliament, which is currently sitting in Strasbourg, was put on lockdown, and the parliament’s safety awareness division sent a message to MEPs advising those dining in the city centre to “please stay inside and don’t go out”.
Several MEPs in city centre restaurants reported hearing gunfire. The Yorkshire and Humber MEP Richard Corbett tweeted that he was dining in the city “where shots (were) fired”. The restaurant was “not letting anyone in or out”, he added.
Earlier the prefecture tweeted: “Incident happening in Strasbourg, do not relay false rumours.”
France remains on high alert after suffering a wave of attacks commissioned or inspired by Islamic State militants in 2015 and 2016, which killed more than 200 people.
Strasbourg’s Christmas Market, which started in 1570, is one of France’s most popular seasonal events. The “Grande Ile” where the market is held is surrounded by water, on one side the main channel of the River Ill and the other by the Canal du Faux-Rempart, is only accessible by bridges. Since the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, the event has been held under high security. Access to the area is controlled and visitors bags search. Vehicles are banned from the area.
In 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market in Berlin killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. The perpetrator Anis Amri, a Tunisian who had failed to gain asylum in Germany, was killed four days later in a shootout with police near Milan in Italy.
French president Emmanuel Macron, currently struggling to contain four weeks of civil unrest from the gilets jaunes movement, cut short a ministerial meeting on Monday evening.
Castaner left immediately for Strasbourg. “Our security and rescue services are mobilized,” Castaner said.
