Amir condoles France’s Macron over Strasbourg market ‘attack’

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Police hunt attacker after 3 people killed

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 12, (Agencies): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of condolences to the French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, over the victims of the gun attack in Strasbourg.

His Highness expressed Kuwait’s strong condemnation of such criminal act which targets lives of innocent people and contradicts all humanitarian morals, expressing support to all measures taken by France to ensure stability and security.

His Highness asked Almighty Allah to bestow his mercy upon the deceased and wished quick recovery to the wounded. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al- Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar cables. National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim on Wednesday sent two cables of condolences to President of French National Assembly Richard Ferrand and Senate President Gerard Larcher over the gun attack in Strasbourg.

In the cables, Al-Ghanim strongly condemned the criminal act and wished the wounded swift recovery. Security forces searched through eastern France on Wednesday for a man suspected of killing three people in an attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg and who was known to have been religiously radicalised while in jail. With the gunman on the run, France raised its security threat to the highest alert level, strengthening controls on its border with Germany as elite commandos backed by helicopters hunted for the suspect. French and German agents checked vehicles and trams crossing the Europa Bridge on the Rhine river, along which the Franco-German frontier runs, police said, backing up traffic in both directions. Hundreds of French troops and police were taking part in the manhunt. Police identified the suspect as Strasbourg-born Cherif Chekatt, 29, who is on an intelligence services watch list as a potential security risk.

“The hunt continues,” Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on France Inter radio. Asked whether the suspect might have left France, he said: “That cannot be ruled out.” The gunman struck at about 1900 GMT on Tuesday, just as the picturesque Christmas market in the historic city was shutting down, He shot dead three people and wounded at least 12 others. He engaged in two brief gunfights with security forces as he evaded a police dragnet and was thought to have been wounded in the exchanges, Nunez said. The Paris prosecutor’s anti-terrorism unit has taken up the investigation, suggesting that the authorities are treating the shooting as a possible terrorist attack.

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