Chérif Chekatt latest: Strasbourg Christmas market shooting suspect ‘hung Bin Laden poster in his prison cell’

The career criminal on the run following the terrorist murder of two and wounding of 13 others in Strasbourg hung an Osama Bin Laden poster in his prison cell, it was claimed today.

As the international manhunt for Chérif Chekatt, 29, entered its second day, disturbing details of his extremist past were made public.

Not only was he known to mix in radical Islamist circles, he was also an open supporter of Bin Laden, the late mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001, it is said.

Explaining how Chekatt was radicalised while in jail for a series of armed robberies, an investigating source told Le Parisien newspaper: “In 2008, he had a Bin Laden poster in his cell.”

Fifteen people were shot or stabbed at the Strasbourg Christmas market on Tuesday evening. The attacker was shot in a shoulder by a patrolling soldier and also fired at by a police unit but managed to get away by hijacking a taxi.

Chekatt, who has 27 criminal convictions, was technically under surveillance when he left prison last year after serving his most recent jail term, in Germany, for burglary.

The French secret service had placed him on a “threat to national security” watch list in 2016 but this was not communicated to the German authorities who deported him back to his home city of Strasbourg.

A French interior ministry source said: “He was under surveillance from then on, with conventional techniques used including monitoring his phone, but nothing particularly alarming emerged.”

On Tuesday morning, police raided the Strasbourg flat where Chekatt had been squatting to arrest him over a stabbing last August. They found weapons including grenades and a rifle but he was not there.

The bloodbath later that day left two men dead and a third in a coma. Six other people are fighting for life in hospital. The first deceased victim named was Anupong Suebsamarn, a 45-year-old Thai national who had been on holiday with his wife.

Among the critically injured is Italian journalist Antonio Megalizzi, 28, who had been working at the European Parliament, which went into lockdown during the attack. The manhunt for Chekatt now extends across Europe, with more than 600 dedicated officers involved in France alone.

Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz, who is leading the investigation, said Chekatt was likely to be armed and extremely dangerous. His mother, father and two brothers are in custody, under suspicion of helping him with his getaway.The French national, from an Algerian background, was originally identified through CCTV and DNA evidence.

A series of gun and knife attacks have been carried out by Islamic State and al Qaeda in France since early 2015.

Vigil: a woman leaves a candle at Strasbourg Christmas market and, top right, soldiers on patrol after the fatal gun attack. Right, Cherif Chekatt, who is on the run