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One of the three victims of an extremist knife attack on a church in France on Thursday was a 44-year-old Brazilian and mother of three, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry announced.
The woman was seriously injured in the attack on the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, southeastern France, by a 21-year-old Tunisian immigrant who had just arrived in the country.
He managed to flee to a nearby bar but died shortly after, law enforcement sources have said.
“Tell my children that I love them,” he managed to say before his death, according to a report by French cable channel BFM TV.
“The Brazilian government sadly announces that one of the fatalities was a 44-year-old Brazilian, mother of three, living in France,” said a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It did not confirm whether she also had French nationality.
In a nearly half-hour frenzy at the Notre-Dame basilica in central Nice, on the Mediterranean coast, the assailant used a 30-centimeter (12-inch) knife to cut the throat of a 60-year-old woman so deeply that she practically beheaded, French authorities have said.
The body of a man, a 55-year-old church employee, was found nearby inside the basilica, with his throat also slit.
The Brazilian woman, the third victim, died from multiple stab wounds.
The attacker was shot and injured by the police. French President Emmanuel Macron has called the killings an “Islamist terrorist attack.”
“President Jair Bolsonaro, on behalf of the entire Brazilian nation, offers his deepest condolences to the family and friends of the citizen murdered in Nice, as well as to the other victims, and extends his solidarity to the French people and government.” the statement continued.
The Brazilian government also expressed “its firm repudiation of any form of terrorism” and expressed “especially its solidarity with Christians and people of other religions who suffer persecution and violence because of their beliefs.”
pt-jm / rsr / st / acb
