French city opens famed Christmas market year after attack

The celebrated Christmas market in France's eastern city of Strasbourg opened for another festive season Friday, with shopkeepers and visitors vowing not to be cowed by an attack last year by a radical Islamist gunman that killed five people.

The annual celebrations around a giant Christmas tree will be shadowed by the events of December 11, 2018 when Cherif Chekatt, 29, went on the rampage at the market.

This year, some 500 members of the security forces will be on duty -- in uniform and plain clothes -- and checks are being set up around the city centre.

"We have no specific elements of concern -- terrorist or otherwise -- concerning the Christmas market in Strasbourg", Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told the Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace newspaper.

Castener, who was to visit the market later Friday, said he wanted to "bring a message of vigilance but also calm, confidence and an invitation to the festivities."
"The Christmas market is something magical for the young, the grown-ups and the elderly," said Christiane, a pensioner visiting the market on Friday. "We will think about the attack but it won't stop us. Otherwise they will win."