Strasbourg Christmas market attack
At about 8pm local time on 11 December 2018, a gunman attacked people with a gun and a knife in the streets around place Kléber in central Strasbourg, near the city's Christmas market. Prosecutor Rémy Heitz said the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack. He exchanged fire with soldiers from Operation Sentinelle, was wounded in the arm and escaped in a taxi.
Five people died: Anupong Suebsamarn, a Thai tourist; Kamal Naghchband, a garage mechanic originally from Afghanistan; Italian journalist Antonio Megalizzi; Polish national Barto Pedro Orent-Niedzielski; and a 61-year-old retired bank worker from Strasbourg. Eleven others were injured (BBC).
The suspect was Cherif Chekatt, 29, who was born in Strasbourg. He had 27 criminal convictions across France, Germany and Switzerland and was on France's "fiche S" security watchlist. On the evening of 13 December, police found him in the Neudorf district, where he fired at officers and was shot dead. Judicial sources told AFP that a video found on his USB key showed him pledging allegiance to Islamic State, and IS claimed him as one of its "soldiers", although Interior Minister Christophe Castaner cast doubt on that claim.
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