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One person was arrested after a Greek Orthodox priest was shot outside a church in Lyon on Saturday afternoon.
The incident took place in the seventh district of the city, on Rue Père Chevrier.
The shots fell around 4 p.m. on Saturday. The pastor, identified as Nikolas K. (52), was shot at the entrance of the church as it was about to close for the day.
The perpetrator is said to have fired two shots, police told Le Figaro. For AFP, the police say that he fired with a hunting rifle.
At around 8 p.m., the prosecution confirms that a suspect must have been arrested and placed in preventive detention. According to the police, it fits with the descriptions of the author given by witnesses at the scene; about 1.90 meters tall, wearing a long dark vest, writes Le Figaro. The man was not armed when he was arrested.
The incident is being investigated as an attempted murder. At the same time, the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, stresses that reasons are not currently being ruled out. The direction of the investigation says that they are in dialogue with the national antiterrorist unit.
The priest is a Greek citizen and has three children. He was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. According to Le Progres, he was conscious and said he did not know the attacker.
Le Figaro writes that the priest has previously had a dispute with a man who had attacked him.
The area where the shooting occurred was cordoned off early Thursday and people were urged to stay away. The national security forces were called.
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Multiple Attacks in a Short Time – Create a Crisis Unit.
The shots were fired at the priest two days after a Tunisian attacked and stabbed three people near and inside Nice Cathedral. All three, including church servant Vincent Loquès, died from their injuries. It is not yet clear whether there is any connection between the attack in Lyon and the attack in Nice.
In light of the events, the Minister of the Interior has created a separate crisis unit:
– Evacuate the sector and follow the advice. All support to our security forces and emergency services on site. I will travel back to Paris to open a crisis unit, together with the president and prime minister, Gérald Darmanin wrote on Twitter on Saturday afternoon.
Prime Minister Jean Castex has also announced on Twitter that he will return to the capital.
Promotion of “individual jihad”
Last Sunday, the French interior minister sounded an internal terror alert after Thabat – a news agency with close ties to Al-Qaeda – published a call for an individual jihad against French targets.
According to Le Figaro, religious institutions, resorts and embassies were on the list of proposed destinations. They must also have proposed specific methods, such as knife attacks and crowd collisions.
Recently, there have been large demonstrations in Muslim countries against French President Emmanuel Macron’s support for the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the name of freedom of expression. On Saturday, Macron told Al-Jazeera that he understands the feelings Muslims have for the cartoons.
– But the drawings are not a public project, they come from free and independent newspapers that are not affiliated with the authorities.
Furthermore, the French president believes that attacks such as the knife terror in Nice on Thursday are carried out by those who distort the teachings of Islam. Following the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty in early October, the debate over the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has returned to the agenda in France.
The case is being updated.
