A gunman suspected of killing three people at a Christmas market in Strasbourg was still on the run on Thursday, 48 hours after the attack, eluding security forces who have launched a manhunt across eastern France and neighbouring Germany.
The death toll from Tuesday night’s attack rose to three, as police combed the city in the east of France for a second day and manned checkpoints on the German border.
Police issued a wanted poster in multiple languages for Cherif Chekatt, the main suspect in the attack, who was on a watchlist as a potential security threat. Authorities say the 29-year-old was known to have developed radical religious views while in jail.
Armed and masked police swooped on Strasbourg neighbourhoods with elite RAID officers fanning out across three locations in late afternoon, including the area where the suspected shooter was last seen. Some had their guns trained on the houses in front of them.
But after about two hours the operation ended with no sign of security forces any closer to apprehending the shooter.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said that an individual close to Chekatt was arrested earlier in the day as part of the investigation into the attack,…
