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A Greek Orthodox priest was shot on Saturday while closing his church in the French city of Lyon, police said.
The priest, a Greek citizen, is in a local hospital with life-threatening injuries after being shot twice in the abdomen, a police officer told The Associated Press.
The attacker was alone and fired with a hunting rifle, the official said.
Police cordoned off the largely residential neighborhood around the church and detained a person who resembles the gunman’s descriptions but was not armed at the time of his arrest, the Lyon prosecutor said in a statement.
He said investigators are trying to determine his identity.
As night fell in Lyon, an Associated Press reporter saw police tapes and emergency vehicles throughout the neighborhood.
The national police tweeted that a “serious public safety incident” was taking place.
The motive for the shooting was unclear.
It came two days after a knife attack on a Catholic church in the French city of Nice that killed three people, and amid ongoing tensions over the publication of cartoons in a French newspaper mocking the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
French counterterrorism authorities were following the case but not investigating Saturday’s shooting.
The interior minister activated a special emergency team to monitor the persecution and the Lyon prosecutor opened an investigation for attempted murder.
“No theory is favored, no theory is ruled out,” Lyon Mayor Gregory Doucet told reporters at the scene.
“We do not know at this time the motive for this attack.”
Antoine Callot, the pastor of another Greek Orthodox church in Lyon, identified the injured priest as Nikolas Kakavelakis, a 45-year-old father of two, the Associated Press reported.
Callot told the AP that the Greek Orthodox community in Lyon has not received any threats, but said they immediately asked police for security protection at their church after the shooting.
“We are anxious and distressed. It’s really horrible, ”he said. “Now we have to hide and be careful.”
Residents and a local police patrol heard gunshots near the church, and when officers arrived they saw an individual fleeing and found the wounded priest at the back door of the church, the Lyon prosecutor said in a statement.
Prime Minister Jean Castex reiterated the government’s promises to deploy military forces to religious sites and schools.
He said the French can “count on the nation so that they can practice their religion in complete safety and freedom.”
Seeking to defuse tensions and explain France’s defense of the prophet’s cartoons, President Emmanuel Macron gave an interview broadcast Saturday on the Arab network Al-Jazeera.
Mr Macron also tweeted that “our country has no problem with any religion,” adding: “No stigmatization: France is committed to peace and harmonious coexistence.”
The Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “We condemn the attack on an Orthodox priest of Greek origin near the Church of the Annunciation in Lyon, France. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in permanent contact with the competent French authorities ”.
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