France: National Security Heightened After After Three Dead, Twelve Injured At Christmas Market Shootout

French police have said on Wednesday (12 December) that the hunt for a gunman, who opened fire is still on. The assailant killed three and injured twelve, at the Christmas Market in Strasbourg, France, reports The Tribune India.

350 French gendarmes (paramilitary police) and soldiers along with air units are combing for the assailant. Priorly recognised as a possible threat, the gendarmes tried to bring him for questioning a day before the attack, but he wasn’t found in his home.

The anti-terror section of the Paris Prosecutor’s office is in charge of the investigation. The famed Christmas Market is one of the oldest in Europe with millions drawn to it annually.

The suspect entered the market through the Corbeau Bridge and began shooting at passers-by who were in the middle of their Christmas shopping on the Rue des Orfevres at 8 pm on Tuesday (11 December). The Anti-terror police were immediately deployed to apprehend the suspect, who was presumed to be injured in one of the exchanges and who is said to have escaped by getting in a cab.

France had raised its national security threat to the highest “emergency terror attack”, stated Interior Minister Christophe Castane in a press conference, where he divulged that the suspect was known priorly for his non-terror related offences.

Strasbourg has been the centre of several French counter-terrorism operations while the market itself was targeted in a thwarted plot by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists 18 years ago.