Roma- ANSA

  Italy has raised its anti-terrorism measures to the maximum level in view of the Christmas holidays following Tuesday's attack in Strasbourg, sources said on Wednesday.
    Prefects and police chiefs were instructed to raise security efforts at an extraordinary meeting of the case anti-terrorism strategic analysis committee at the interior ministry, the sources said.

The hypothesis that the suspected Strasbourg killer, Cherif Chekatt, could have links to Italy has been ruled out for the moment at the meeting on the basis of information from the French authorities.
    Four people close to Chekatt have been detained, including his father and two brothers, French officials said on Wednesday.

A deadly terrorist attack,where 3 killed and 12 wounded when a gunman opened the fire near a Christmas market in the French border city of Strasbourg on Tuesday evening before being cornered by police. 

The Strasbourg prefecture said the gunman shot dead three people, revising down a previous death toll of three. 

Police officials said Chekatt was wounded in a gunfight with soldiers after the Tuesday night attack but escaped, and a top official said he might have escaped to neighboring Germany.

One of the wounded in critical case is an Italian guy called Antonio Megalizzi and he is in a coma and cannot undergo surgery, the father of the young reporter's girlfriend said on Wednesday.
    "From what I understand, Antonio is on a coma and it is not possible to operate because of the position of the bullet, which reached the column at the base of the skull, near to the spine," said Danilo Moresco, the father of Megalizzi's girlfriend Luana.
    He said he had this information from the family, who are already at the hospital.