Three people were killed in a knife attack at a church in the southern French city of Nice on Thursday, an act President Emmanuel Macron referred to as “an Islamist terror attack” and which prompted the country to raise its security alert to the highest level.
The attack came amid tensions between France and some Muslim nations over cartoons denigrating the prophet Muhammad. It also echoes the beheading less than two weeks ago of a middle school teacher in the Paris suburbs who showed those cartoons to his students.
The government has defended the cartoons as freedom of expression, while declaring a need to “reform” the practice of Islam in France. In response, there have been calls for a boycott of French products across the Muslim world.
Speaking at the scene in Nice on Thursday afternoon, Macron condemned the attack and doubled down on his defense of freedom of expression.
“We will cede nothing,” Macron said, announcing the deployment of between 3,000 to 7,000 members of France’s anti-terror security force throughout the country, especially at churches, schools and other religious sites.
Radical Islamist groups had earlier in the week threatened more attacks, and France had warned its citizens in certain Muslim countries to exert extra caution.
The immediate question on Thursday — the birthday of the prophet — was whether the Nice stabbing was related to those threats. The attack was accompanied by smaller incidents elsewhere in France and in Saudi Arabia, where a man stabbed a security guard outside the French consulate in Jiddah. It was not clear whether the incidents were coordinated in any way.
The attack in Nice occurred near the Basilica of Notre-Dame de L’Assomption, shortly after 9 a.m. Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said three people were confirmed dead, and that the attacker repeatedly shouted “Allahu Akbhar,” or “God is greatest” in Arabic.
The attacker was neutralized by French police and taken to hospital, according to media reports.
France‘s anti-terrorist prosecutor announced the opening of an investigation for “assassination” and “attempted assassination.”
According to Estrosi and to French media reports citing police sources, one of the three victims, a woman, had her throat slashed inside the church. The second victim, a man, was stabbed to death. The third known victim, another woman, was killed in a bar in front of the basilica where she had hidden.
Estrosi told France’s BFM television that the throat slashing bore a clear resemblance to the beheading of the middle school teacher, Paty.
Also on Thursday, a man attacked a security guard outside the French consulate in the Saudi Arabian city of Jiddah. The security guard was taken to hospital and did not suffer life-threatening injuries, the French consulate said in a statement. Saudi authorities confirmed that the attacker had been arrested.
The French press additionally reported that, about two hours after the Nice stabbing, police shot dead a man in Avignon who had been threatening a passerby with a knife. Authorities apprehended another man brandishing a knife in central Lyon, near the Perrache train station, according to the regional newspaper Le Progrès.
Source : Washington Post
