France hunts gunman after market shooting

Hundreds of police and anti-terror forces hunted yesterday for a gunman who shot dead three people and wounded 13 at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, with the suspect known to police and thought to be an religious extremist. The attack took place Tuesday around 8 pm (1900 GMT) in the heart of the medieval city in eastern France as the market was closing, sending crowds fleeing for safety.

The suspected shooter, a 29-year-old from the south of the city, was on a watchlist of suspected extremists and “is actively being hunted by security forces,” local officials said in a statement. The man opened fire in three areas of the Christmas market, which draws hundreds of thousands of people each year to its wooden chalets selling festive decorations, mulled wine and food. The motive for Tuesday night’s shooting in Strasbourg “has not yet been established,” deputy Interior minister Laurent Nunez told France Inter radio.

The gunman is “known for a number of criminal offences (...) but has never been linked to terrorist offences,” he said. Police had wanted to arrest him Tuesday morning as part of a investigation into an attempted murder, but he was not at home, a security source said. Strasbourg mayor Roland Ries said most of the victims were men, including one Thai tourist. “Some were shot in the head,” Ries told BFM television. No children were hurt.

Soldiers patrolling the area as part of regular anti-terror operations after a series of attacks since 2015 exchanged fire with the suspect and wounded him, police sources said.