French government ministers have appealed for the nationwide gilets jaunes protests to stop in the wake of the Strasbourg attack.

After a gunman opened fire near a Christmas market in Strasbourg city centre on Tuesday night, killing three people and injuring several more, the justice and interior ministers suggested that the anti-government tax revolt should wind up its nationwide protests and street marches.

The gilets jaunes – named after their high-visibility yellow jackets — have staged four weeks of protests on roundabouts and tollbooths across the country, as well as four Saturdays of street marches that led to violence and vandalism in Paris and other cities.

Despite the French president, Emmanuel Macron, this week promising to raise the minimum wage and drop taxes on pensions as well as scrapping the green fuel-tax that sparked the protests, many gilets jaunes had vowed to stage a fifth Paris street march this Saturday, insisting Macron had not done enough to address social inequality.

But the justice minister, Nicole Belloubet, told French radio the protests should stop, adding: “There has been a dramatic event in Strasbourg and also the president has responded [to the gilets jaunes].”

The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said the “massive mobilisation” of security forces to deal with the Strasbourg attack and the gunman, who was still on the run, “also has an effect on our capacity to intervene on other sites”.

Olivier Dussopt, a junior minister for public finances, said it was time for the gilets jaunes to “sit down around the table for discussions” rather than demonstrate, while the education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, criticised what he called “vile” social media posts suggesting the government had exaggerated the Strasbourg attack in order to detract from the protest movement. Laurent Nuñez, a junior minister for the interior, said he was “outraged” by conspiracy theories about the attack.

At roundabout barricades, particularly near Strasbourg, gilets jaunes expressed sadness and sympathy over the attack and said they would have to discuss whether or not to maintain their protests this weekend.

Many voices in the gilets jaunes – a grassroots citizens’ movement with no clear leadership – condemned conspiracy theories about the Strasbourg attack.