Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Strasbourg reopens Christmas market after attacker shot dead

Published 14/12/2018, 18:11
Updated 14/12/2018, 18:11
© Reuters. French police patrol outside the Strasbourg Cathedral as a man dressed as Father Christmas poses with a tourist

© Reuters. French police patrol outside the Strasbourg Cathedral as a man dressed as Father Christmas poses with a tourist

By Gilbert Reilhac

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Strasbourg reopened its traditional Christmas market under heavy security on Friday, the morning after French police shot dead a gunman suspected of killing four people in the heart of the historic city.

Cherif Chekatt, 29, was killed in the Neudorf neighbourhood of Strasbourg after firing on police, ending a two-day manhunt that involved more than 700 members of the security forces.

The fourth victim, an Italian national, was named on Friday.

The attack on Strasbourg's cherished Christmas market, a target full of religious symbolism, evoked France's difficulties in integrating western Europe's largest Muslim minority and dealing with homegrown militants inspired by Islamic State.

"It's reopening just in time," said stall-holder Bernard Kuntz, preparing his scarves and stoles imported from India, where President Emmanuel Macron was expected to arrive in the evening after a trip to Brussels.

"We were getting worried. Some of the guys have taken out loans to be here, and we've already lost two days."

On Friday, 29-year old Italian journalist Antonio Megalizzi died as a result of the wounds he sustained in what Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries said was indisputably an act of terrorism.

Italy's Foreign Ministry said Megalizzi was in Strasbourg to follow the plenary session of the European Parliament for the Europhonica radio network.

Ries expressed relief that Chekatt had been killed and said everyone in Strasbourg, on eastern France's Rhine river border with Germany, felt the same.

French troops, who have been used to bolster national security since a wave of Islamic State-inspired attacks began in France in 2015, stood guard at the open-air market.

"I think it will help to get back to a life that I would describe as normal," Ries told reporters. "With the death of this terrorist ... citizens, like me, are relieved."

EXTRA 1,800 TROOPS ON MARKET PATROLS

Islamic State (IS) claimed Chekatt as one of its soldiers. It provided no evidence for the claim, which Interior Minister Christophe Castaner called "opportunistic".

"Nothing indicates that (Chekatt) was part of a network. There is nothing to suggest that he was being protected by such, but the investigation is not yet over," Castaner told Europe 1.

He said Chekatt's Islamic beliefs were radicalised during time in prison. Police were still interrogating seven associates on Friday, including his parents, to determine whether he had accomplices.

France ramped up its security threat to its highest level after Chekatt struck late on Tuesday. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised an extra 1,800 troops would be put on patrols with a special focus on Christmas markets.

The outdoor market in Strasbourg, centred on a towering Christmas Tree in Place Kleber, draws more than 2 million visitors each year. Christmas markets have been a feature of the Alsatian city since the early 15th century.

The Strasbourg shooting was the latest in a succession of attacks linked to Islamist militancy in France going back to 2012. Since January 2015, more than 240 people have been killed in attacks on French soil, most of them in 2015-16.

On Friday morning, Castaner visited a Jewish cemetery in nearby Herrlisheim where 37 tombstones and a monument to Holocaust victims had been defaced with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti.

© Reuters. French police patrol outside the Strasbourg Cathedral as a man dressed as Father Christmas poses with a tourist

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.