>> could to have you with us, you are on france 24. our top stories is our, french police identify the 29-year-old gunman who opened fire at a christmas market in the city of strasburg. there are fears the assailant has fled the country. theresa may is vowing to fight a leadership challenge with everything she's got if she fails to win 158 out of the 315 votes. the prime minister could be out of a job by tonight.

police here in france have launched a manhunt in the northeast of the country. this, after a gunman opened fire at a christmas market in the city of strasburg on tuesday evening. two people have been killed, one person brain dead. 13 others injured. according to security services, the 29-year-old french born gunman was known to the authorities. the suspect has been identified and he has been convicted a total of 27 times. he has served jail sentences in switzerland, germany, and france. the assailant is on france watchlist and his home had been before theded attack took place. four people close to the gunman have been detained by french authorities. we are going to go across the strasburg where the city mayor is addressing the press. >> pyramid of us on this side

representing the city authorities. speech to the attention of the habitants of strasburg of the entire is the region of france. , whichnts of last night attack, a an terrorist attack, if we take the word terrorist at its basic meaning, that is, intended to create terror. regardless of what the intentions of the individual who carried out this attack may be, it is without any doubt a terrorist attack. prosecutor said very clearly just a few moments ago. you are familiar with the

diedtion, two individuals in the attacks, a third person is brain dead. and some 12 individuals have been injured, including six in very critical condition. the vital prognosis is under question. sure, and all i'm of my colleagues, i'm totally upset with yesterday's events. begin byld like to paying tribute to the behavior of the people of strasburg. they behaved with dignity, bravery, and relatively calm with as much could be in those circumstances. i would also like to pay tribute to the work of the fire department, the police

department, the national police, the municipal police, the forces,of the special protecting the market. members -- all of the employees of the city of inasburg who participated the aftermath of the events. i would like to express my sympathy to the families of the victims and to all of the people of strasburg who have undergone a very major psychological shock. as i i've just stated, they behaved with great dignity. given this attack, what must be done, what must we do? first of all, i decided that

today had to be a day of mourning3. this is why myself and my , we decided that we would refrain from any discussions. urning,time for mo for compassion for the victims, be it those who died or those who are fighting for their lives at this very moment. again, i would like to say that is our major concern that we all share. by the side of the toi was minister of the interior. in fact, i was in paris, and he brought me here in his own airplane.

because, obviously because of the events, i needed to be here. therefore, i was able to see the mobilization of the police forces, the emergency workers, and all of the other members of the administration and i would like to thank everyone who was involved on the ground and to continues to do so today because the attacker has not been completed as of yet. today, there is a welcome center for the families. anyone who has been impacted by these events may go there and find help and advice. place where you will find representatives of the police, of associations providing aid to victims, and

also legal experts. it's a place where anyone who is a victim of the attack, be it a physical victim or a psychological victim may go. it is an strasburg. we have opened a condolences register at the town hall. anyone who so desires may express him or herself. last night, i must say, i was quite impressed by the mobilization of the people of strasberg. there was a lot of solidarity showed. restaurants opened their doors to take people in. people who were terrorized and frightened, to protect them.

that families opened their doors to people who couldn't get home and they offered to give them a bed for the night. they hadn't planned to stay overnight, so they had no place to go. with the helpone of someone from the town hall who helped find housing for who otherwise would have been out in the street. c people arealm -- people are calm, they respected the restrictions and the lockdown. over and beyond midnight, in fact. some people were only able to go to get out of the lockdown. theuding those who were in

stadium basketball game. it was extremely difficult to make a clear decision, and informed decision to lift the lockdown because we simply did not know where the attacker was and we lifted the lockdown gradually with the necessary precautions. come intoessages have strasberg. many, many messages. haverious colleagues received messages of sympathy and condolences. keep a us that we must stiff upper lip and that our city had been attacked, but that i'm thinking of course of the message sent by the president, president macron.

by the prime minister, by the president of the commissions. who wrote specifically, and he also put the commission flag at half mast at the council of europe and the european report of human rights. otherolleagues, many mayors of other major cities in france have also sent messages of sympathy and condolences. as well as other foreign mayors. what now? well, i will close with saying this. ago, today --ment >> that was the mayor of strasburg speaking a couple of hours after that attack which took lace on tuesday and strasberg -- which took place on tuesday in strasberg's christmas

markets. underway,t is still the spokesperson is speaking now, we can go across and listen to what he has to say. >> the council of ministers was opened with a statement by the president about the events that took place in strasberg, stating that the terrorist threat is still a serious threat at the heart of our nation and as long as the manhunt is underway, he prefers not to say more. the president of the republic stated during this initial times,ion that in these of course, last night, but the last few weeks as well, the concept of general interest must lead us all, all political leaders to be calm and refrain

from excessive statements. he recalled that public order must prevail. in all places, and under all circumstances. and that we must continue respecting the republican principles. we will continue working as we have done over the last 18 and make it possible for working people to earn more. we were therefore accelerate certain measures that have been planned to be regressive progressive overtime, that they take place more quickly as some people have said it's the turning point. it's merely an acceleration of our intentions of the project. >> the french government

bringperson, i'm going to in france 24 chief foreign editor rob parsons. before we spoke, we had the mayor of strasburg's book. he said this attack, he didn't really use the word terrorism, but he said the terrorist attack. an attack on our way of life. before that, we have the paris prosecutor who spoke and he said that his assailant reportedly shouted alla akbar. again, nobody is saying that this is a terrorist attack, they are being very careful with the words they are using. >> whatever words they use, that's what it feels like to the people of strasbourg today. for them, it's a terrorist attack. and they are feeling the consequences of insecurity that emerge from that. but it's the same situation we have seen so many times over the last few years in france and in strasberg. going back a few years, there was an attempt to attack the

christmas market but the plot was foiled and 10 people were arrested. but this isn't a problem that is peculiar to france. we see it all over europe and the united kingdom, germany, spain, belgium, poland. almost wherever you care to look. part of the problem is you can put as many security measures in on theith soldiers streets and they were the ones you responded quickest to what happened in strasberg on tuesday night. but ultimately, there's very little you can do. this man, we know he's 29 years and out ofeing in prison. dark out convicted 27 times. >> he's a petty delinquent who has been radicalized apparently in one of the last few times he's been in prison. he's got a gun in his hand, he's got grenades. he's trying to find some sort of justification. to stopost impossible

this happening, even of these on the market. he was there as part of the file with the french security services on people likely to commit acts of this sort. they knew he had been radicalized but even with the resources at their disposal, it's impossible to give a 100% guarantee that people won't be able to do this. was raidedpartment the same day. we can bring in a security expert at the institute at the university of geneva. thank you very much for joining us. served timetacker in switzerland, germany, and france. he seems to have been a petty criminal from what we've known, not a terrorist. >> well, there's a theory about this from a a different politicl scientist which talks about the

radical andon of criminal organizations. definitely, we are talking about a basis, aa threat of iminality. and there's plenty o of criminality in northeastern france and strasberg, definitely is one of those pubs s of petty crime and trafficking of weapons and human beings but of course, this radical islamist anand jihadist dimension as to the issues. >> why the northeast of francec? >> severalal reasons. one of thehem very clearly is te lack o of control of borders. you will have noticed that this particular individual that we timeslking about several not only committed crimes in france, but also in germany and also in many other countries. e of the f first r reactions tht wawas taken w was to seal off borders and today, there is a

presumption that possibly in order to try and attempt to five out of the three or hundndred policece forces in strasberg ththat eventually thee inindividual hasas crossed anotr therefore,order and a comic it's the search and complicates the judicial process. >> could something of changed in the recent past, he does he seems to have been a petty criminal from what we know. 27 convictions, he spent time in jail in switzerland. but we have this case which is being handled by the paris prosecutor. the paris prosecutor typically handles prosecute -- terrorist related charges. >> it's true. what you mentioned before, i overheard the discussion with your colleague. the reason why the french authorities are talking about a terrorist situation because this

allows the government toto put n knight --into gladys interdisciplinary self. it also allowed the deployment which is a paris-based unit which is typically an anti-gang, anti-organized crime unit. highly mobilile and very effificient, so definitely when you talk about a penny from a ai don't know about you and i don't knknow about the responsibility, but i think that i personally would not call someone with 27 convictions a petty criminal. >> but if you're convicted for breaking into a dentist office, i don't know, i'm not saying it's harmless, but compared to killing somebody or taking someone's life. >> excuse me, but i believe you said yourself that one or two hand grenades have been found in his house. i don't think that we should be

talking about a petty criminal. this is a much more serious issue. >> indeed. , because weng back have a state of emergency that has not been declared in france. police haveay, the enough on their hands. they have enough authority to conduct the search is. >> i think the feeling will be that it's too early to reintroduce a state of emergency . there was a state of emergency in paris, it was quite controversial as well. regarded as being a heavy measure and normal restrictions on citizen freedoms. given, this is so far a relatively localized, and by comparison with what we've seen in the past, a relatively small incident, but i don't believe the temptation will be strong to reintroduce the state of emergency. i think people will feel it's too heavy in measure, particularly given the political

situation in france at the moment with demonstrations all over the country to call a state of emergency now, which would involve probably preventing demonstrations taking place, would be very politically risky. >> i want to bring back in alexander and security expert at the global institute at the university of geneva once again. from what we know of this attacker, it could be that he has led to germany because from where he was in strasberg was not far from the border with germany. authorities in germany say there was no risk of radicalization from what they saw. >> this is along a lengthy discussion about the exchange of information between police forces and unfortunately, the file records are only as good as what you put into these files. let me just say that probably what has happened is only pee

speculation on my part. but you've been talking about very thoroughly filled gaps by the french administration and police forces. record, theional interpol records are something else. concede,german police it's probably not everything that's on file or on record about this individual anand certainly not what isis presentn the files. yourasked a question to colleague before about a state of emergency. let me answer that question as well. there's no reason today to put in place yet another time, a state of emergency. the one that was put in place in 2015. the reason for that was that essentially, this state of emergency is preventative rather than anything else. number two, most of the measures that were iconic and effective at the time in 2015 have been

now put into standard law. we already have most emergency such ato deal with problem. >> is there a a problem with funds? it's not just terrorist or would be terrorists that are on this list because everyone from an artist to possible jihadist are on the list. it has some 13 different degrees on most levels on this list. because, everyone seems to carry out an attack or any attack in rants is on this list. because, everyone seems to carry out an attack or any attack>> w. the reason why these documents exist and the reason why they are called administrative files is because they are not judicial files. technically, if you are applying a strict event to the legislation, the french administration, french police should not be collecting preventive files or speculative

files on anybody and this is the case in most democracy. most police forces actually in my country are not allowed to do so. but these files exist because there is a risk. the problem with these files is and, since it is unlawful it is not law-abiding to keep records and track citizens which could potentially pose a threat to the state or to the population, the content of these files cannot be communicated to anyone. it cannot be communinicated to other police as law enfnforcemet forces, it cannot be communicated to, for example, partners with regards for example, social networks in france to find out more ininformation about people. so, it is a necessary evil to

have such files. what the french police has always files, there certainly important and essential but unfortunately, these files cannot be communicated. >> thank you very much for joining us on france 24 today. we're going to go to strasburg now, standing by for us. what the latest on this manhunt? the latest is that the french authorities have teamed up with german authorities on the border and they are checking every path for new identities of every person crossing the border. officers from different departments, soldiers onto that case and two helicopters as well. taking placeeally on the ground and in the air as well.

>> schools are open this wednesday. the you get a sense that people are going about their day as normal or trying to? yeah, and definitely did feel like that but it's sort of quite down within the last hour or so and if you can see behind me, that road where the shooting happened real and a half ago. it was really busy at first for people laying flowers and candles and pay their respects to victims. quietedseems to have down. there's not so many people walking around as before. sort of an. atmosphere compared to this morning, actually. and there are a lot of armed police officers around and they are wondering around in groups of three or four and standing guard at important buildings, significant places in the city.

and of course, outside the christmas markets. and in the city were the is,stmas market is sort of and that is where they are patrolling most. and of course, that christmas market is closed today. shows have been canceled and schools open, but lots of parents have not actually send their children in today. >> do you see a lot of police patrolling the streets? yes, there's definitely more police patrolling the streets than when we first arrived this morning. this morning, the security presence was premature on this road here which is still blocked. sort of investigations are still underway, guests had come to look at the scene of the crime in police were concentrated that area. now that that has been opened, it seems that the patrol is more throughout the city and there's lots more of those walking around than before.

>> we are going to come back to you later on in the program. reporting from strasburg. now, the french president will securityg an emergency briefing. we can go across now.

donald d trump: i'm establilishg new vettining measures to keep radical islamamic terrorists out of the united states of america. we don't want 'em here. llara kiswanani: there''s a s sa of a arab peoplele, muslim p pee in n this country designed to peperpetuate a and justifyfy thr on terror, and that's what a lot of arabs and muslims are facing today, sort of a really undignified struggle to just live. dr. . ramzi salti: it takekes couragage to be able to stanandp to racacism, turn n it into aa positive moment a m moment of learnining where yoyou actuallyy use that momoment to educate, to let people know about the rich diversity of your cultuture. lamees dahbour: w we want ourur communitity, like, s san franc