Three dead, several injured in knife attack at church in Nice, French police say

The attack took place at Nice’s Notre Dame church, which is on the city’s main shopping thoroughfare.(Reuters: Eric Gaillard)

An attacker with a knife has killed three people and wounded several others at a church in the French city of Nice, according to French police, in an incident the city’s mayor has described as terrorism.

Mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter the knife attack had happened in or near the city’s Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker.

The man suspected of carrying out the fatal knife attack kept shouting “Allahu Akbar” even after he had been arrested by police, Mr Estrosi told reporters.

He was taken to a nearby hospital after being injured during his arrest, a police official said.

He was believed to be acting alone, the official added. The official was not authorised to be publicly named.

A police source said a woman was decapitated. French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a decapitation having occurred in the attack.

The French anti-terrorist prosecutor’s department said it had been asked to investigate the incident.

Reuters journalists at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons had put up a security cordon around the church, which is on Nice’s Jean Medecin avenue, the city’s main shopping thoroughfare. Ambulances and fire service vehicles were also at the scene.

Mr Estrosi said French leader Emmanuel Macron was due to travel to Nice in the wake of the attack.

The lower house of Parliament suspended a debate on new virus restrictions and held a moment of silence for the victims.

The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of French teacher Samuel Paty.

The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a civics lesson.

It was not immediately clear what the motive was for the Nice attack, or if there was any connection to the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.

Since Paty’s killing, French officials have re-asserted the right to display the cartoons, and the images have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with the killed teacher.

That has prompted an outpouring of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing Mr Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.

AP/Reuters