Strasbourg Christmas market shooter, Cherif Chekatt, has reportedly been shot dead by police during an armed raid.
Chekatt was said to have been shot dead during a police operation, which was confirmed by several police sources, reports FranceInfo.
Reports on social media suggested there had been shots fired in the Neudorf area of Strasbourg where a manhunt was underway.
It was then reported he had been shot, but it was not clear if the suspected terrorist had been gunned and captured alive by French police.
Police were scouring the French-German border for a car belonging to the mother of Chekatt amid fears he has fled eastwards in her vehicle.
He has a history of arrests in Germany and police searches have now spread across the border.
The German newspaper Bild reported that police were on guard across the German border for a French numberplate on a Ford belonging to Chekatt's mother, in which he could have fled the country.
Swiss police are also said to have increased their security amid fears he was fleeing across Europe.
It comes as heavily armed police swooped on the Neudorf neighbourhood of Strasbourg on Thursday amid a massive manhunt for Christmas market shooter Cherif Chekatt.
Police cars blocked a street as officers carrying rifles and dressed in body armour gathered in the neighbourhood where Chekatt was dropped off by a taxi driver following his bloody rampage on Tuesday.
As officers searched for the killer it emerged that they had found jihadist literature at his apartment, as well as a grenade, a loaded rifle and four knives.
On Thursday Le Parisien also revealed that, during a prison stay in 2008, Chekatt hung a picture of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden on his wall.
Chekatt killed three people and wounded 12 during an attack on the city's Christmas Market before fleeing when he was shot through the shoulder.
One French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, were taking action on Thursday based on a 'supposition only' that Chekatt, a serial criminal, could be hiding in a nearby building.
This evening police ended their search in Neudorf without finding the killer, but as darkness fell officers continued to scour the nearby Meinau neighbourhood and the Plaine des Bouchers area.
Police also arrested a member of Chekatt's 'entourage' today, believed to be a friend who had served time with him in prison, after the killer's parents and two brothers were earlier taken into custody.
Heavily armed French police descended on a street in the Neudorf neighbourhood of Strasbourg on Thursday amid a manhunt for Christmas market shooter Cherif Chekatt
Officers blocked a street in the east of the French city, though it was not immediately clear whether they had tracked Chekatt down
The raid comes two days after Chekatt killed three and wounded 12 after opening fire at the city's Christmas market before fleeing when he was shot in the shoulder
Officers sweep the streets in Neudorf, the neighbourhood where Chekatt was dropped off by a taxi driver after his rampage
Officers have been searching for two days for any sign of shooter Cherif Chekatt, amid fears he might strike a second time
French special police forces were also spotted in the Meinau neighbourhood, close to Neudorf, while heavily armed
In the search this afternoon raid officers fanned out along one street, some with their guns trained on the houses in front of them, as television cameras watched on, while other officers extended a security perimeter in the neighborhood.
Children at a nearby school were placed in lock down while the operation took place, with parents told not to come and pick them up.
Police found writings calling for jihad at the attacker's home, as well as a grenade, a rifle and four knives, of which two were hunting knives, regional newspaper DNA reported.
Five people have been detained, believed to be Chekatt's parents, two of his brothers and another person taken into custody on Thursday.
The fifth person is reported to be a 39-year-old friend of the killer who once shared a prison with him.
Cherif Chekatt, 29, is being hunted by French police after opening fire at a Christmas market in Strasbourg this week, killing three
Chekatt is said to have stayed with the friend in Lingolsheim on the night before the attack.
Police also raided the home of Chekatt's sister in Paris, although they did not arrest her, according to Le Point.
Officers apparently became suspicious over the sister's links to a doctor who may have helped treat Chekatt after he was shot in the arm.
Some 720 police and gendarmes have been scouring a huge section of eastern France using helicopter sweeps, roadside checks, border surveillance and house searches, but thus far have uncovered no trace of Chekatt.
Another 500 troops have been sent to guard public places including Christmas markets amid fears Chekatt will attack again, with 1,300 more due to join soon.
A government spokesman confirmed authorities have been told to capture Chekatt 'dead or alive', and that the most important thing is that he is found quickly.
Officers have warned that Chekatt, who has been convicted 27 times starting when he was just 13, should be considered dangerous and not to approach him.
Chekatt was put under observation by anti-terror police and was still being watched at the time he committed his attack, but didn't show 'any obvious signs'.
French special police forces secure an area during a police operation in the Meinau district
Meanwhile Interior minister Christophe Castaner was dispatched to Strasbourg to handle the crisis while Emmanuel Macron is in Brussels at an EU summit.
The attack came just as President Emmanuel Macron sought to take back control of the nation after a month of anti-government protests that have spread violence across the country.
Speaking before his arrival, Castaner said: 'This [operation] is a question of suspicion, as there have been several over the last 36 hours. This is not a confirmation and it does not announce anything, the investigation continues.'
Earlier today the death toll from the attack rose to three as a victim who had already been declared brain-dead finally succumbed to his wounds.
The man, an Afghan national who worked as a car mechanic in Strasbourg, died of his injuries today after he was reportedly shot in the head in Tuesday's rampage.
It was also revealed that 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, who was shot dead at the market, had not intended to be in Strasbourg at the time.
Suebsamarn had been planning to go to Paris with his wife, but had changed plans at the last minute because of the Yellow Vest protests, which have seen some of the city's busiest landmarks paralysed by rioting.
The third victim is reported to be a Frenchman, a 61-year-old Strasbourg resident and a former employee of Crédit Agricole, who was shot in the head, according to France 3.
Police officers secure a street in Neudorf, a neighbourhood in the east of Strasbourg
A French special police captain gives orders to one of his men amid the armed operation
A police source said officers acted on a 'supposition' that Chekatt was hiding in a house somewhere in the neighbourhood
Officers including those from the elite Raid unit are taking part in the operation in Strasbourg's east
One Italian, 28-year-old Antonio Megalizzi, was reported to be in critical condition. Italian daily La Repubblica reported he was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament.
Leaders of the mosque he attended initially said he had died after falling into a coma, but this was never confirmed by authorities.
Meanwhile L'Est Républicain reported that two people from eastern France were injured in the attack, one of whom was shot in the back of the neck and was in intensive care.
The other is an 18-year-old woman who has been operated on and is now recovering.
Strasbourg-based art collective Mimir told Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace that two of their members, both musicians, were injured near the Savons d'Hélène café where they were performing.
One of them, a percussionist, was shot in the neck and is in a coma. The second, a guitarist, was also injured, but less severely.
A third man, also with links to Mimir is seriously wounded in the head.
French police have appealed for members of the public to look for Chekatt and to contact them if they have information, but not to approach him
In total 720 police and gendarmes have been searching for Chekatt across a vast swathe of eastern France, using helicopters, roadside searches and border surveillance
Hundreds of troops have also been drafted in to guard public places, including Christmas markets, amid fears Chekatt will attack again
Anupong Suebsamarn, 45, who was shot dead at the market had not initially planned to be there and was supposed to be in Paris, but changed his plans at the last minute
Police have warned that Chekatt should be considered dangerous and that if any member of the public they should inform authorities and not approach him
Yellow Vests urged to stay off the streets
The French government has urged Yellow Vest protesters to hold off another round of demonstrations scheduled to take place in Paris this weekend.
Spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said ministers decided against banning the marches outright, but asked people to be 'reasonable' amid a massive manhunt for Strasbourg shooter Cherif Chekatt.
It comes after conspiracy theorists accused the government of staging the terror attack in order to quash the Yellow Vest movement.
Writing in online forums, one protester said: 'You'll see next week there won't be a single yellow vest. Well played, Macron.'
President Emmanuel Macron has already offered the marchers a £9billion package of concessions including pay rises and tax cuts.
But many complained that the measures were too little, too late, and vowed to continue with weeks of protests, which have often turned violent.
'Our security forces have been deployed extensively these past few weeks,' Griveaux said, while insisting that 'it's not up to us to say if the movement should be called off or not.'
In the wake of the Strasbourg attack, 'it would be better if everyone could go about their business calmly on Saturday, before the year-end celebrations with their families, instead of demonstrating and putting our security forces to work once again.'
Last Saturday nearly 90,000 police were mobilised across the country for the protests, with 8,000 officers and a dozen armoured vehicles deployed in the capital where scores of stores, museums and monuments were closed.
Le Parisien also reported that a house painter, married with two children, was seriously injured.
Amid the hunt for Chekatt, France raised its three-stage threat index to the highest level and bolstered troops around France.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that the French native, born in Strasbourg, had run-ins with police starting at age 10.
Chekatt was mostly convicted in France but also in Switzerland and Germany, for crimes including armed robbery.
He had been flagged for extremism and was on a watch list, but the interior minister said 'the signs were weak'.
'It's a large zone and the search is difficult,' senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez said on France-Inter radio.
Strasbourg is on the border with Germany, where the suspect was convicted in 2016 of breaking into a dental practice and a pharmacy in two towns.
German lawyer Thomas Röder, who served as Chekatt's public defender, told Bild that he was a very religious man, but otherwise did not seem radicalised.
He said: 'The only thing that attracted attention was his very religious attitude. He made a point of never taking alcohol or illegal drugs.
'It was also important to him that he did not have to eat pork in the prison. My client was actually a very sociable type, often joking.'
Prosecutor Remy Heitz said the man attacked with a handgun and a knife about 8pm local time on Tuesday, and was shot in the arm during an exchange of fire with soldiers during his rampage.
He then took a taxi to another part of the city, boasting of the attack to the driver, and later exchanged more gunfire with police and disappeared, Mr Heitz said.
Witnesses described shots and screams after the gunman opened fire and yelled 'God is great!' in Arabic, the prosecutor added. Swaths of the city were under lockdown for hours.
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.
The German government said it had stepped up controls on the border with France but did not change its threat level.
'All terrorist attacks touch all of France, and it's plain to see each of the attacks have hit a highly symbolic point or moment,' Mr Philippe told parliament.
He listed violence since 2015 that killed more than 200: at the Charlie Hebdo satiric newspaper, a Kosher store, restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Paris; along the famed seaside promenade in Nice; and even inside a church in a quiet suburb of the northern city of Rouen, among others.
Strasbourg's Christmas market 'is a family and brotherly celebration that speaks about hope and what unites us. It's this celebration that was hit yesterday by a terrorist act,' he said.
The city was in mourning, with candles lit at the site of the attack, and the Christmas market was closed at least through Thursday, according to regional prefect Jean-Luc Marx.
Candlelit vigils were held in Strasbourg for the victims of the shooting on Wednesday. Three people died, one was left brain-dead, and 12 more were wounded
People lay candles and flowers in tribute to those who died in Place Kléber, in Strasbourg
There are fears that Chekatt could have fled across the border to Germany, where he has link and has been arrested at least once
It came only 24 hours after he broke a long public silence and appealed for calm amid the mushrooming 'yellow vest' protest movement that seeks a better standard of living for ordinary citizens.
He offered a package of measures, but it was not clear if that would halt the weekend protests.
'The terrorist threat is still at the core of our nation's life,' government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux quoted Mr Macron as saying at the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Interior Ministry official Mr Nunez said Chekatt had been radicalised in prison and had been monitored by French intelligence services since his release in late 2015, because of his suspected religious extremism.
Mr Nunez told France-Inter that police went to his apartment in an outer neighbourhood of Strasbourg on Tuesday morning. Authorities said he was not there, although five other people were detained.
Police seized a grenade, a rifle and knives in the operation, Mr Heitz said.
Jewish graves found desecrated hours before Islamist rampage
Jewish gravestones in a cemetery near Strasbourg were discovered daubed with antisemitic graffiti hours before an Islamic extremist opened fire at a Christmas market in the French city.
The graves were painted with Nazis swastikas and the numbers 88 and 14, which are used by white supremacists to reference the phrase 'heil Hitler' and a 14-word statement he once issued from prison which reads: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.'
Other graffiti read 'CRIF = ZOG', referencing the French organisation which represents Jewish communities - CRIF - which was compared to a 'Zionist occupation government' or 'ZOG'.
Jewish graves in a cemetery in Herrlisheim, 12 miles north of Strasbourg, were discovered covered in racist graffiti on Tuesday just hours before the city's Christmas market was attacked by a radical Islamist
Graves were painted with Nazi swastikas and the numbers 88 - which stands for 'heil Hitler' - and 14 - which represents a white supremacist screed he once penned in prison
The graves were also painted with a slogan which reads CRIF = ZOG, referencing the organisation that represents French Jews, called CRIF, which was branded a 'Zionist occupation government', or ZOG
The graves are located in Herrlisheim, a commune around 12 miles to the north of Strasbourg.
This is the fourth time in two months that graffiti featuring far-right and antisemitic symbols has appeared in the Alsace region, according to the Jerusalem Post.
On the same day the most recent graffiti was discovered, Strasbourg saw one of its main avenues renamed for Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and former minister who died last year.
Hours after the vandalism was uncovered, Cherif Chekatt - an Islamic extremist - shot three people dead and wounded another 12 in an attack at Strasbourg's Christmas market.
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News Pictures Strasbourg Christmas market shooting: Police cordon off road amid manhunt
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