Strasbourg gunman most likely did not belong to any terrorist group – minister

The suspected gunman who killed three people at a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg was shot dead on Thursday in a brief gun battle with police after being on the run for 48 hours, police said. Cherif Chekatt, 29, was killed in the Neudorf/Meinau area of the city shortly after a major police operation was launched around 2000 GMT on Thursday about 2km from where he launched his attack on Tuesday. A helicopter was used to locate and identify Chekatt while he was on a public street, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said. He was quoted as saying that Chekatt most likely did not belong to any terrorist organization. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) claimed the gunman as one of its soldiers on Thursday, according to a statement on its Amaq news website. The group provided no evidence for the claim.