Hero civilian fifth victim of Strasbourg Christmas market attack
A man that tried to stop a suspected terrorist armed with a knife and gun from attacking shoppers at a Christmas market has died.
A fifth victim wounded during an attack at a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg has died, authorities and relatives said.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed on Sunday (local time) that a Polish national had died after being injured by Cherif Chekatt in Tuesday’s rampage.
“My brother Barto Pedro Orent-Niedzielski has just passed away. He thanks you for the love and strength you have given him,” the brother of the 36-year-old victim from the Polish city of Katowice wrote on Facebook.
Chekatt, 29, attacked Christmas market shoppers armed with a gun and a knife, before being killed by police two days later.
Orent-Niedzielski and his Italian friend Antonio Megalizzi had tried to stop Chekatt from entering a bar during Tuesday’s assault, a close friend told AFP.
Megalizzi, 28, died from his injuries on Friday.
Nicknamed “Bartek”, Orent-Niedzielski had lived in Strasbourg for 20 years, according to his friend.
Eleven people were also injured in the bloodbath, with several still in a critical condition.
More than 1000 people gathered in Strasbourg on Sunday (local time) to honour the victims of the attack.
People, many in tears, gathered around a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles at the foot of the enormous Christmas tree at the Kleber Square in the city centre.
“We wanted to be here to show that we are not giving up and that we continue to live,” Jonathan, 25, told AFP in the snow-covered square.
The ceremony, organised by local rights associations with the approval of the city authorities, included music, singing and several readings.
The traditional minute of silence was replaced by a minute of noise, during which people shouted and applauded to express their solidarity with the victims.
The crowd then spontaneously burst into a rendition of the Marseillaise, France’s national anthem.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the attacker — a French native — had run-ins with police starting at age 10 and his first conviction at age 13.
Chekatt had been convicted 27 times, mostly 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.
The emerging profile pointed to an increasingly common hybrid extremist who moves from acts of delinquency to sowing terror.
Chekatt was flagged as a potential extremist, but Castaner said “the signs had been weak.”
A terrorism investigation was opened, but the exact motive remained unclear.
The suspect’s parents and two brothers, also known for radicalism, were detained, a judicial official said.
About 720 police, soldiers and SWAT team officers in Strasbourg were being reinforced with 500 more soldiers and another 1,300 in the coming days to guard public places, especially other Christmas markets, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said after a crisis meeting. The government raised the security level after the attack.
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.
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