French police try to catch attack suspect, operation ongoing

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — A police operation was underway today in the Strasbourg neighborhood where the suspected gunman in an attack near a popular Christmas market that killed three people last was seen.

One French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, took action based on "supposition only" that the suspect, Cherif Chekatt, 29, could be hiding in a building nearby two days after the attack.

The official could not be identified because he was not authorized to disclose details on the investigation.

Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekatt off in the Neudorf neighborhood of Strasbourg on Tuesday evening after the shooting that also wounded 13 people. The suspect also was wounded while exchanging fire with security forces, officials said.

More than 700 officers have been searching Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television.

Asked about the instructions they received, Griveaux said the focus was catching the suspect "as soon as possible," dead or alive, and "put an end to the manhunt."

Chekatt allegedly shouted "God is great!" in Arabic and sprayed gunfire from a security zone near the Christmas market. Prosecutors have opened a terror investigation of the attack. Police distributed a photo of Chekatt, with the warning: "Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene."

The death toll rose to three today with the death of a victim who was declared brain-dead earlier. Five of the people wounded were in serious condition, the prefecture of the Strasbourg region said.

France raised its three-stage threat index to the highest level and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across France to help patrol streets and secure crowded events.