Strasbourg shooting

 Strasbourg shooting: What we know so far

• 3 hours ago

A gunman opened fire near a crowded Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing three people and leaving one brain-dead.

The attack on the evening of 11 December left 12 other people injured, several of them seriously.
The main suspect in the attack, 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, was shot dead by police on the evening of 13 December.
Hundreds of officers had been involved in the search for the suspect, who was well known to the authorities for previous criminal offences.

How did the attack unfold?

The attack began at around 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on 11 December close to one of Strasbourg's central squares, Place Kléber.
The attacker was seen holding a gun outside 10, Rue des Orfèvres in the centre of the city, according to the Paris public prosecutor, Rémy Heitz.
He then went around the area, down the following streets in succession: Rue des Grandes Arcades, Rue du Saumon, Rue des Chandelles and Rue Sainte-Hélène, before going on to Rue du Pont Saint-Martin.

Along the way he opened fire several times and also used a knife to seriously wound and kill people, Mr Heitz added, saying the suspect yelled "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest" in Arabic) during the rampage.
When faced by four soldiers of the anti-terror Sentinelle operation, he fired in their direction. They fired back, wounding him in the arm.
He managed to reach a taxi which drove him away from the scene and dropped him in the vicinity of the police station in Neudorf, the area where he lives which sits on the border between Germany and France.
The taxi driver, who has spoken to the police, said the man had asked to be taken to that district without giving an address, saying he would guide him there.
The driver also said he could see the man had a hand gun and several wounds. To explain the origin of his wounds, the suspect said he had killed 10 people and that he had been injured in a firefight with soldiers.
After he got out of the taxi, the gunman came across police officers and exchanged fire with them.

The suspect also told the driver that a grenade had been found at his home that morning. That allowed investigators to link the man with a police search undertaken earlier on Tuesday.
During that operation, which was part of investigations into a robbery and a homicide, police had found a defensive grenade, a loaded rifle and four knives, the prosecutor said.

How was the suspect killed?

After an intensive manhunt that included both French police and officers across the border in Germany, Chekatt was tracked to a warehouse in the Meinau district of Strasbourg, close to his home area of Neudorf on the evening of 13 December.
A police operation was launched there at about 20:00 GMT and reports he had been shot dead emerged about half an hour later.

What do we know about the suspect?

Born in Strasbourg in February 1989, Chekatt was already known to the security services as a possible Islamist terrorist threat.
He has 27 convictions for crimes including robbery spanning France, Germany and Switzerland, and has spent considerable time in prison as a result.

He is thought to have become radicalised during his time in prison, and was noticed by the relevant authorities in 2015 for that reason.
He was the subject of a "fiche S", am indicator of people who represent a potential threat to national security, and was being monitored by the DGSI, France's domestic intelligence agency, Mr Heitz said.
Hours after the attack, four people connected to the suspect were detained in Strasbourg, Mr Heitz added. Sources close to the investigation quoted by Reuters news agency said they were the suspect's mother, father and two brothers.

• Face to face with the gunman

Who are the victims?

A Thai tourist was one of the victims, named as Anupong Suebsamarn, 45, according to Thai media reports. He had recently arrived in the country on holiday, they say. He was killed with a bullet in the head on rue des Moulins, according to local TV.
Another victim was a local resident, Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told French TV. The man, born in 1957, died on rue des Chandelles, local TV reported.
Of the seriously wounded, two were stabbed in the abdomen, two others were shot in the head and another was shot in the back of the neck, it said, quoting a hospital source.
An Italian journalist working for Europhonica - a radio news organisation covering the European Parliament in the city - was among the seriously wounded, French and Italian media reported.
In a tweeted statement, Europhonica said it "cannot confirm any news of his condition" and asked for his privacy to be respected. It added that a French staff member was also injured. but did not say to what extent.