In another shocking and brutal attack in France, a knife-wielding man yelling “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a woman and killed two other people in an alleged terrorist attack on a church in Nice on Thursday, police and officials said.
Police said three people were confirmed to have been killed in the attack and several were injured. A police source said a woman was beheaded. French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a beheading in the attack.
READ | Knife attack in France: woman beheaded and two others killed in Nice church
The attacker kept saying ‘Allahu Akbar’: Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, who described the attack as terrorism, said on Twitter that it had occurred in or near the city’s Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker. Estrosi said that the attacker had shouted the phrase “Allahu Akbar”, or God is the greatest. One of the people killed inside the church is believed to have been the church’s guardian, Estrosi said. “The attacker kept shouting” Allahu Akbar “even after he was detained, Estrosi said.
Detained man: “The alleged knife attacker was shot by the police while in custody, he was on his way to the hospital, he is alive,” Estrosi told reporters.
France on Islamo-fascism: “Enough is enough,” Estrosi said. “The time has come for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace to definitively eliminate Islamofascism from our territory.” Estrosi said the victims had been killed in a “horrible way.” “The methods certainly coincide with those used against Conflans Sainte Honorine’s brave teacher, Samuel Paty,” he said, referring to a French teacher beheaded earlier this month in an attack in a Paris suburb.
Location in Nice: Estrosi said a woman had tried to escape from inside the church and had fled to a bar in front of the building. The French counter-terrorism prosecutor’s department said it had been asked to investigate the attack. Reuters reporters at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons had placed a security cordon around the church, which is on Nice’s Jean Medecin Avenue, the city’s main commercial thoroughfare. Ambulances and fire engines were also at the scene.
Decapitation of Samuel Paty: The attack comes as France is still reeling from the early October beheading of French high school teacher Samuel Paty by a Chechen man in a Paris suburb after he had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Paty, 47, was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen Muslim.
The attacker had said that he wanted to punish Paty for showing students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics lesson. It was not immediately clear whether Thursday’s attack was related to the cartoons, which Muslims consider blasphemy.
Since Paty’s murder, French officials, backed by many ordinary citizens, have reaffirmed the right to display the cartoons, and the images have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with the murdered teacher. That has sparked a torrent of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing French leader Emmanuel Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.
India supports France: In a development that shows the closeness between India and France, Delhi has fully supported French President Emmanuel Macron, who faces uncharitable comments, particularly after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish president has been attacking the French president after the latter called for action on what he called “Islamist separatism.”
The Foreign Ministry in a statement on October 28 had said: “We deeply deplore the personal attacks in unacceptable language against President Emmanuel Macron in violation of the most basic standards of international discourse.” The MEA “condemned” the “brutal terrorist attack” that claimed the life of a French teacher in a “shocking way that has shocked the world” and offered “its condolences to his family and the people of France.”
“We also condemn the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the life of a French teacher in a gruesome manner that has shocked the world. We offer our condolences to his family and the people of France. There is no justification for terrorism on any ground or under any circumstance, “the statement added.
French envoy to India, Emmanuel Lenain, thanked MEA for their support by tweeting, “France and India can always count on each other in the fight against terrorism.”
#StandWithFrance: Interestingly, earlier this week #StandWithFrance was trending on Twitter. In fact, according to some French media outlets, the hashtag started in India. India and France have increased their engagement in recent years and, indeed, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla will be in Paris this weekend.
Other countries also support France: In addition to India, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, has spoken out in full support of France. He tweeted: “President Erdogan’s words addressing President Emmanuel Macron are unacceptable. The Netherlands strongly supports France and the collective values of the European Union. For freedom of expression and against extremism and radicalism.”
The Canadian Foreign Minister also spoke in support of France. Canadian FM tweeted: We stand in solidarity with our French friends. Turkey’s recent comments on France are totally unacceptable. We must return to respectful diplomatic exchanges. We will always be united to defend freedom of expression with respect. “
Some other attacks in France:
* Two people were stabbed and wounded in Paris on September 25 near the former offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where Islamist militants carried out a deadly attack in 2015. A man from Pakistan was arrested for the attack.
*Oct. February 3, 2019 – Mickael Harpon, 45, an IT specialist with security clearance to work at the Paris police headquarters, killed three police officers and a civilian employee before being shot dead by police. He had converted to Islam 10 years earlier.
* March 23, 2018 – Three people were killed by a gunman in southwestern France after stopping a car, shooting at police and taking hostages in a supermarket. The security forces broke into the building and killed him.
* July 26, 2016: Two attackers killed a priest and seriously wounded another hostage in a church in northern France before being shot dead by police. Francois Hollande, president of France at the time, said the hijackers had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
* July 14, 2016: A gunman drove a heavy truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing 86 people and wounding dozens more in an attack claimed by the Islamic State. The attacker was identified as a Tunisian-born Frenchman.
* June 14, 2016 – A Frenchman of Moroccan origin stabbed to death a police commander in front of his home in a Paris suburb and killed his partner, who also worked for the police. The attacker told police he was responding to an appeal from the Islamic State.
* November 13, 2015 – Paris was rocked by multiple gun and bomb attacks on entertainment venues around the city, in which 130 people were killed and 368 injured. The Islamic State said it was responsible. Two of the ten known authors were Belgian citizens and three French.
* January 7-9, 2015 – Two armed Islamist militants stormed the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on January 7, killing 12 people. Another militant killed a policewoman the next day and took hostages in a supermarket on January 9, killing four before the police shot her.
with input from Reuters
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