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Less than two weeks have passed since the murder of history teacher Samuel Paty, and now France is being rocked again by a terrorist attack with Islamist overtones.
On this occasion, the event took place in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Nice, on the Mediterranean coast of southern France.
– At nine this morning we heard sirens and suddenly a colleague received an alarm text message that was sent by authorities, says Audrey Ghiglione, 39, who works a few blocks away.
“I’m very scared of this,” says Audrey Ghiglione, who works a few blocks away.
Photo: Mehdi Chebil
Now she’s standing by the obstacles and they have difficulty controlling emotions.
– I’m very afraid of this. All the memories of the terrorist attack of July 14, 2016 will return. I saw it up close, the whole family was on the boardwalk. And now this is happening, in the midst of the crown crisis, with a country shutdown starting tomorrow, says Audrey Ghiglione.
– It’s so disgusting. The first thing I did was call my children.
She falls silent, lifts the blue mouth guard, and wipes a few tears from her cheeks. The police in front of us are alert with their automatic weapons.
It was at nine o’clock Thursday morning when a man attacked a woman inside the great Notre-Dame cathedral in Nice. He stabs her severely in the throat. The approach is described as very brutal.
– It is the same “modus operandi” as in the murder of Samuel Paty, said the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, shortly after the event.
Massive police force around the church.
Photo: Mehdi Chebil
According to police sources cited According to French media, the woman’s neck was cut totally or partially on the stone floor of the cathedral. The perpetrator then attacked the church keeper, a 45-year-old man who is said to have been popular with the congregation. He also died of neck injuries.
The third victim was a woman who fled to a nearby bar.
– A woman came here from the church and shouted: “Run, run, someone has stabbed people,” says Daniel Conilh, a waiter at a nearby restaurant, to the AFP agency.
Soon after, the police arrived. The man is said to have yelled “God is great” repeatedly before police shots knocked him to the ground. On Thursday afternoon, it was reported that he was being treated at a Nice hospital. The incident is now being investigated as a terrorist crime.
President of Frankrikes Emmanuel Macron visited the crime scene on Thursday. He said the number of soldiers protecting strategically sensitive sites will be increased from 3,000 to 7,000, as part of Sentinelle’s preventive security effort.
“France will not abandon its values,” Macron said, expressing his support and sympathy for practicing Catholics in France.
During the day, a man under surveillance by the security service was also arrested in Lyon. He is said to have been arrested shortly after shouting “God is great” and pulling out a 12-inch long knife at a tram stop.
In another incident, a man was injured in Avignon, in southeastern France, after threatening a vendor of Arab origin. The man is said to have been wearing a jacket with the text “Defend Europe” and is believed to have links to right-wing extremist groups, according to the Mediapart site.
At the same time, a man was reportedly arrested at the French consulate in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia after stabbing a guard there.
Still not clear if the events are linked, but come after a week of radical Islamists in Turkey, Iran, Bangladesh and other countries protesting against the French president’s defense of the right of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to practice religions and their symbols, and be it Islam, Christianity or any other faith.
Macron’s speech on the importance of free speech and cartoons in his speech at the coffin of Samuel Paty has been misinterpreted by some Muslims in authoritarian states as the president more or less ordering French cartoonists to make cartoons.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Macron’s speech on “Islamist separatism” and urged him to “do a psychic test.” The dispute between Turkey and France escalated further on Wednesday, when Charlie Hebdo published a scathing cartoon of President Erdogan.
However, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and several other countries in the Middle East and Central Asia strongly disassociated themselves from the event in Nice on Thursday. Something that did not convince the right-wing extremist Marine Le Pen, Macron’s main rival in the 2022 presidential elections.
– Clearly there is a connection. The question is why we have not yet coordinated our fight against Islamism here at home and our diplomacy. “We have not taken the necessary steps to address this and protect the French,” Le Pen said Thursday.
– The government has signaled the threat, of course, but has not acted enough. We must introduce martial law to crush Islamism, Le Pen said.
Exactly what it is it would mean something unclear in practice, but probably some kind of state of emergency that could violate the fundamental rights of people who are sympathetic to political Islam.
The conservative mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, also said Thursday that he wants to take a hard line.
President Macron said during his visit to Nice that “more measures will come”, and that he will consult with the government on Friday.
Runner Valentine Birko lives in a hotel near where the event took place.
Photo: Mehdi Chebil
At the same time, Canadian Valentine Birko, 63, one of the many tourists taken aback by the act, stared at the cathedral.
– My hotel is right next door. I was jogging when it happened and came back five out of nine. Then there were police everywhere. This is so scary. And it can have such enormous consequences for many.
