PARIS: Strasbourg reopened its traditional Christ­mas market under heavy security on Friday, the morning after French police shot dead a gunman suspected of killing three people in the heart of the historic city.

Cherif Chekatt, 29, was killed in the Neudorf neighbourhood of Strasbourg after firing on police, ending a two-day manhunt that involved more than 700 members of the security forces.

The attack on Strasbourg’s cherished Christmas market — a target full of religious symbolism — evoked France’s difficulties in dealing with homegrown extremists inspired by the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

“It’s reopening just in time,” said stall-holder Bernard Kuntz, preparing his scarves and stoles imported from India ahead of the expected arrival of French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.

“We were getting worried. Some of the guys have taken out loans to be here, and we’ve already lost two days.”

Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries described the attack as indisputably an act of terrorism, expressed relief that Chekatt had been killed and said everyone in Strasbourg, on eastern France’s Rhine river border with Germany, felt the same.

French troops, who have been used to bolster national security since a wave of IS-inspired attacks began in France in 2015, stood guard at the open-air market.

“I think it will help to get back to a life that I would describe as normal,” Ries told reporters. “With the death of this terrorist ... citizens, like me, are relieved.”

IS claimed Chekatt as one of its “soldiers”, but provided no evidence for the claim and Castaner called it “opportunistic”.

“Nothing indicates that (Chekatt) was part of a network. There is nothing to suggest that he was being protected by such, but the investigation is not yet over,” the minister told Europe 1.

He described Chekatt as a long-time delinquent whose religious beliefs were radicalised during previous periods in prison.

Police were still interrogating seven associates on Friday, including his parents, to determine whether he had accomplices.

France ramped up its security threat to its highest level after the gunman struck late on Tuesday. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised an extra 1,800 troops would be put on patrol with a special focus on Christmas markets.

Three people died in Tuesday’s assault in the vicinity of the Christmas market and several were wounded, Paris Prosecutor Remy Heitz said.

The Strasbourg shooting was the latest in a series of militant attacks in France going back to 2012. Since January 2015, more than 240 people have been killed in attacks on French soil, most of them in 2015-16.

The outdoor market in Strasbourg, centred around a towering Christmas Tree in Place Kleber, draws more than two million visitors each year. Christmas markets have been a feature of the Alsatian city since the early 15th century.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2018