he suspect in the deadly shooting attack at a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg was jailed for burglary in Germany before being expelled to France, German authorities said Wednesday.
The 29-year-old suspect was sentenced to two years and three months for burglaries in the city of Mainz and in Baden-Wuerttemberg state, and jailed in 2016.
"He served a year in Germany before being expelled to France," a spokesman from Baden-Wuerttemberg's interior ministry told AFP.
According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, the man broke into a dentist practice in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate state, in 2012, making away with cash, stamps and gold used for teeth fillings.
Four years later, he hit a pharmacy in the Lake Constance town of Engen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, pocketing cash.
German authorities were on the lookout for the fugitive "along the Rhine" river region, the ministry spokesman said.
"But at the moment we do not believe that he has crossed into the country," he added.
Hundreds of police and anti-terror forces hunted Wednesday for a gunman who shot dead three people and wounded 13 at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, with the suspect known to police and thought to be an religious extremist.
The attack took place Tuesday around 8 pm (1900 GMT) in the heart of the medieval city in eastern France as the market was closing, sending crowds fleeing for safety.
The suspected shooter, a 29-year-old from the south of the city, was on a watchlist of suspected extremists and "is actively being hunted by security forces," local officials said in a statement.
The man opened fire in three areas of the Christmas market, which draws hundreds of thousands of people each year to its wooden chalets selling festive decorations, mulled wine and food.
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