According to police – who refer to him as Chérif C – the gunman was born in Strasbourg and was already known to the security services as a possible terrorist threat. Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation. The attack in the heart of old Strasbourg, near its famous cathedral and within the Christmas market that draws many tourists, unsettled the border city that also is home to the European Parliament. While authorities urged people in the area to stay inside after Tuesday’s attack, Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told BFM television Wednesday that “life must go on” so that the city doesn’t cede to a “terrorist who is trying to disrupt our way of life.”

Many of Europe’s deadliest terror attacks in recent years have taken place in France. Christmas markets are a popular target for Islamist terror attacks, such as the 2016, ISIS-inspired truck crash in a Berlin holiday market that left 12 dead and 50 injured. The Christmas market is set to stay closed Wednesday, when flags in Strasbourg will be flown at half-staff in mourning for the people killed, Mayor Ries said. Police union officials identified the suspected assailant as Frenchman Cherif Chekatt, a 29-year-old with a thick police record for crimes including armed robbery and monitored as a suspected religious radical by the French intelligence services. The Strasbourg gunman yelled “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic) as he opened fire on people enjoying an evening out at a Christmas market, the Paris public prosecutor told reporters. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots,” Belsoeur said,

Other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted ‘Go home! A search of his home revealed a grenade, a rifle, four knives, two of which were hunting knives, and ammunition. Another witness, Peter Fritz, told the BBC one of the four people killed was a Thai tourist who was shot in the head and didn’t respond to lengthy attempts to revive him. France has been hit in recent years with high-profile extremist attacks, including the coordinated attacks at multiple Paris locations that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds in November 2015. Tuesday’s attack followed four weeks of protests against President Emmanuel Macron that have stretched the police forces deployed to clear blocked roads and to quell rioting, looting and other protest-related mayhem. The prosecutor’s office said the investigation was being conducted on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise charges, suggesting officials think the alleged shooter may have links to extremists.
A gunman kills two people and injures 14 others in a mass shooting in Strasbourg, France, during the annual Christmas market. The shooter flees the scene but is identified by police as a known extremist. The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism.