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Image posted, CHRISTIAN ESTROSI
The police imposed a security cordon in the vicinity of the church of Notre Dame
Three people were killed and several others injured in a stabbing attack in Nice, French media reported.
Nice Mayor Christian Estrozzi said one person had been arrested.
He added that everything points to a “terrorist attack in the heart of Notre Dame.”
The Interior Minister appealed to citizens to avoid the area in the middle of the French Riviera.
According to French reports, a man and a woman were killed in the attack and the suspect was arrested 10 minutes later, before being transferred to hospital.
Police said the woman had been killed and the city’s mayor spoke of what he described as “Islamic fascism.”
The mayor told reporters that the suspect “kept repeating the phrase (God is great) when the police treated him at the scene of the accident.”
Estrozzi added that one of the dead was the pastor of the church.
Later it was learned that the faithful were inside the building at the time of the attack and that one of the witnesses was able to sound the alarm using a special protection system established by the city council.
The French Islamic Council condemned the attack and expressed its solidarity with the victims and their families.
The French Counterterrorism Prosecutor opened an investigation into the incident.
A minute’s silence was observed in the National Assembly, while Prime Minister Jean Castex gave details of the closure measures that would take effect on Thursday night.
“There is no doubt that our country faces a serious challenge,” he said, calling for unity and cohesion.
aTo terror Hits again
The city of Nice was the target of one of the bloodiest attacks in France in recent years, when a 31-year-old Tunisian was driving a truck that struck crowds celebrating Bastille Day on July 14, 2016, killing 86 people.
Days later, the priest Jack Hamel was assassinated during the morning mass in a church of Rouen.
Earlier this month, teacher Samuel Batey was beheaded near a school northwest of Paris, days after he showed some of the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students.
