France's Macron visits Strasbourg as Christmas market reopens after shooting

Date created : 14/12/2018 - 11:59Latest update : 15/12/2018 - 12:57

The lights on the market's towering Christmas tree were illuminated Friday for the first time since the attack ahead of the official re-opening of the market at 11:00am (10:00 GMT).

"I hope life will get back to normal but I'm not too sure," said Franck Hoffmann, as he opened his wooden chalet offering Christmas candles and ornaments.

"Business isn't going to be what it was," he predicted.

The gunman Chérif Chekatt was killed late Thursday after a two-day manhunt when a police patrol spotted him on a street in the district where he was last seen after Tuesday night's attack on Christmas shoppers.

Questions remained over how Chekatt was able to evade the tight security perimeter set up for an event long known to be a prime target for jihadist groups.

Around 500 police, security agents and soldiers control access at checkpoints on the bridges leading to the river island, a UN World Heritage site, that houses the market.

The goal is to "create a bubble, with searches at the entry points", Mayor Roland Ries said after the attack. Regional government representative Jean-Luc Marx said he had not determined "any flaws in the security measures".

Many residents, however, were not convinced, after Chekatt managed to slip through the controls with a handgun and a knife.

"It doesn't surprise me," said Emeline, 38, who works in the city centre. "You wear a heavy coat, put something in the bottom of your bag. You can bring in what you want."

'It's too painful'

France has been on high alert since the start of a wave of jihadist attacks in 2015, which prompted a threefold surge in the security budget for the market to €1 million.

Chekatt, a 29-year-old career criminal who lived in a rundown apartment block a short drive from the city centre, was flagged by French security forces in 2015 as a possible Islamic extremist.

>> Video: Who is the Strasbourg shooter?

The propaganda wing of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, calling Chekatt one of its "soldiers" who had responded to its calls to target citizens of nations in the coalition fighting the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

The group offered no evidence to support its claims and FRANCE 24's jihadism analyst said it is unlikely Chekatt received any material or organisational IS group support.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the post by the IS propaganda wing was "completely opportunistic".
 

The victims of the attack were a Thai tourist, on holiday in Strasbourg with his wife, an Afghan who sought refuge in France some 20 years ago, a 28-year-old Italian journalist in town to cover the European parliament and a local Frenchman who had just retired.

Italian journalist Antonio Megalizzi died on Friday as a result of the wounds he sustained in what the Strasbourg mayor said was indisputably an act of terrorism.

A fifth victim has been declared brain-dead.

Seven people are in police custody for questioning, including two who were detained on Thursday night.

Strasbourg's Deputy Mayor Alain Fontanel admitted that despite patrols, plainclothes police and video surveillance, "the risks can be reduced, but not eliminated".

"We can't pat down and search everyone, only carry out random checks," he said, adding that huge lines at checkpoints would only create a new potential target for terrorists.

"Someone who wants to get in an area this big with a weapon can do it," he said.

Such reasoning was little comfort to the residents and tourists who flock to the Strasbourg market.

"We thought this would happen only in Nice or at the Bataclan, but here it is at home," said Sylvain, who works at another market in the city centre.

He was referring to the truck attack which killed scores at Bastille Day festivities in Nice in 2016 and the massacre at the capital's Bataclan concert hall in November 2015.

"I'm not going to forget this anytime soon. It's too painful. I'm not even sure I'm able to cry," he said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)