STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French authorities have issued a wanted poster and are calling for witnesses amid a massive manhunt for the suspected shooter nearly 24 hours after a deadly attack at the Strasbourg Christmas market.
A photo of Cherif Chekatt, 29, who was born in Strasbourg, was distributed publicly Wednesday evening.
The poster warns: “Dangerous individual, above all do not intervene.” It asks anyone with information that could help locate him to contact authorities.
Chekatt has been on the run since allegedly spraying gunfire at the city’s famous Christmas market on Tuesday night, killing two and leaving one person brain-dead. A dozen others were injured.
Hundreds of police and soldiers were combing Strasbourg in a search of him, blocking bridges that cross the border into Germany. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced a strengthening of security forces to secure Christmas markets.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner says that the suspect in the deadly attack on the Christmas market in Strasbourg has had a long criminal record, with his first conviction at the age of 13.
Castaner said that at age 10 the suspect “already had behavior that fell under penal law.”
The minister was addressing parliamentarians on Wednesday, a day after the suspect, identified as Cherif Chekatt, 29, sprayed gunfire around the Christmas market in the eastern city, killing two, leaving a third person brain dead and injuring 12 others.
Chekatt was still on the run, with hundreds of police and soldiers seeking him in a massive manhunt.
Authorities said earlier that Chekatt had more than two dozen convictions, mostly in France but also in Switzerland and Germany. They said that Chekatt had been flagged for extremism and under watch.
