FRANCE. Nice: At least three persons were killed and several others injured in the southern city of France on Thursday. According to the reports, one woman was decapitated, two persons were stabbed to death and several others injured.
The French Police have injured the attacker and taken him into custody. Nice city’s Mayor, Christian Estrosi said that the attack had a clear terrorist motive. Meanwhile, the French anti-terrorist prosecutors department have been called to probe into the stabbing. In Paris, MPs of the national assembly held a minute of silence in solidarity with the victims.
According to a French police report, an unidentified man holding a knife entered the church around 9 AM. He beheaded an elderly woman and killed the warden of the church. The attacker then went on to kill another man in front of the church. The attack comes when France is reeling under the beheading of French school teacher Samuel Paty. French Prime Minister Jean Castex says the country’s threat level will be raised to its maximum after the attack.
All the European nations are condemning the barbaric act of terrorism. Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced solidarity with France after the “brutal” knife attack. Italian PM Giuseppe Conte also condemned the attack and called it a “vile attack”. British PM Boris Johnson said, “I am appalled to hear the news from Nice this morning of a barbaric attack at the Notre-Dame Basilica.”
Nice was on the receiving end of terrorism earlier in 2016. On the evening of 14 July 2016, a 19-tonne cargo truck drove into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. It resulted in the death of 86 people and the injury of 458 others.
