PARIS (AFP) – Four family members of the gunman who killed three people at a popular Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg were released from custody on Saturday (Dec 15), the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Three more people close to the attacker Cherif Chekatt, who was shot dead by police on Thursday, were still being held, it said.

But his parents and two of his brothers were freed as there was nothing to incriminate them at this stage, it said the prosecutor’s office added.

More than 700 French security forces had been hunting for 29-year-old Chekatt since the bloodshed on Tuesday night – the latest in a string of militant attacks to rock France.

France’s interior minister on Friday dismissed a claim by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group that it was responsible for the shooting spree.

Police have been focusing their investigation on whether Chekatt had any help in carrying out his attack or while on the run.

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