A man stabbing a church in the French city of Nice has killed three people, strangled at least one, and injured several others before police arrested them.
French anti-terrorism prosecutors have launched
an investigation into what the city's mayor, Christian Estrosi, called an
"Islamist-fascist attack".
"He (the attacker) kept repeating Allahu
Akbar (God is greater) even during the medicine," Estrosi told reporters
at the scene.
A police source told AFP that two victims were
killed’ in the Basilica of Notre Dame in the middle of the city on the
Mediterranean coast, while a third died of his injuries after taking refuge in
a nearby bar. A police source told the news agency.
"The situation is under control now,"
said Florence Gavello, a police spokesperson.
France has been on high alert for terrorist
attacks since the January 2015 massacre in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
A suspect in the Paris attack is on trial.
Especially in Ache, I have painful memories of
the jihadist attack during Bastille Day fireworks on July 14, 2016, when a man
hit his truck with a crowded target, killing 86 people.
It was part of a wave of jihadist attacks on
French soil, often carried out by so-called "lone wolves", who have
killed more than 250 people since 2015.
The attack prompted lawmakers to observe a minute
of silence in parliament on Thursday, before Prime Minister Jean Castek and
other ministers suddenly left for an emergency meeting with President Emmanuel
Macron.
Estrosi, who said Macron, would arrive in Nice
soon, called for churches across the country to be given’ extra security or
closed as a precaution.
- High stress -
The attack comes just days after thousands of
people in France beheaded a teacher in solidarity with teachers who showed
cartoons to students of the Prophet of Islam.
An 18-year-old Chechen man, a history teacher,
Samuel Petty, who committed the heinous crime outside Petty's school on the
outskirts of Paris, was killed’ outside Petty's school on Monday. The teacher
was condemned on social media by angry parents.
His assassination promised Macron a crackdown on
Islamic extremism, including the closure of mosques and organizations, accused
of promoting extremism and violence.
But the move has raised tensions among many
Muslims that Macron is unfairly targeting an estimated five to six million
Muslims in France - Europe's largest group.
Protests against France erupted in several Muslim
countries, some calling for a boycott of French goods, and tensions escalated,
especially between Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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