[ad_1]
An act allegedly motivated by terrorists occurred Thursday morning at a church in the city center. The police were able to arrest the alleged assailant.
The police are securing the central area of Nice.
What we know
- Three people died after being attacked with a knife in a church in Nice.
- The assailant was found by the police and is in the hospital.
- President Emmanuel Macron plans to travel to Nice at noon.
In an alleged terrorist attack, three people were killed in a knife attack in Nice on Thursday morning around 9 a.m. As Reuters reports, a woman is said to have been beheaded. The author called him “Allahu Akbar”. Apparently a man and a woman were also killed. The writing took place in the church of Notre-Dame in the center of the city. The third victim is said to have sought protection in a nearby bar after the attack, according to the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, but succumbed to his injuries. Six other people were injured, the German press agency reported, citing police circles.
In the morning, the place of worship and the area were searched by the police and are still partially cordoned off. The population is advised to avoid the area.
According to the newspaper “Nice Matin”, the alleged perpetrator was “neutralized” by the police with bullets and taken to hospital wounded. The country’s counterterrorism agency has also intervened.
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Jean Castex left the National Assembly to join the national crisis team. French President Emmanuel Macron wants to go to Nice today, as the Elysee has confirmed to the media.
Due to the knife attack on #Nice, @JeanCastex announces that he is leaving the National Assembly and joins the crisis unit in Place Beauvau. # COVID-19 #DirectAN #Lockdown pic.twitter.com/9jqOvQ9LOI
– LCP (@LCP) October 29, 2020
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had warned several times of the high risk of terrorism in the country. Just two weeks ago a professor was beheaded in a Paris suburb. The crime had caused horror throughout the country. Tens of thousands took to the streets to show their solidarity.
Nice was the scene of a terrorist attack in 2016 when a man drove a truck into the crowd on the Promenade des Anglais near the beach on the national holiday, July 14. At that time, 86 people died.
The knife attack already sparked international reactions on Thursday. The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, has called for unity. “We have a duty to unite against violence and against those who want to incite and spread hatred,” the Italian wrote this Thursday on Twitter.
The Kremlin also announced the Nice act. It was unacceptable to kill people, it was said from Moscow, but it was also wrong to offend the religious feelings of believers.
Terrorist attacks in France since 2015
(Reuters) Over the past five years, France has been repeatedly hit by terrorist attacks:
- On September 25, 2020, two people were injured in a knife attack in Paris near the former offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. A migrant from Pakistan was arrested after the crime.
- On October 3, 2019, a 45-year-old IT specialist working at the Paris police headquarters killed three policemen and a civilian employee before being shot by the police. He converted to Islam 10 years ago.
- On May 23, 2018, a gunman killed three people in southwestern France after stealing a car, shooting oncoming police and taking hostages in a supermarket. He was shot dead when police stormed the building.
- On July 26, 2016, two attackers killed a priest and wounded another hostage in a church in northern France. Then the police shot them. President François Hollande declared that the kidnappers were members of the terrorist militia of the Islamic State.
- On July 14, 2016, a national holiday, a gunman rushed into a crowd in Nice with a truck, killing a total of 86 people. The Islamic State terrorist militia took responsibility for the attack. The attacker himself was a Frenchman born in Tunisia.
- On June 14, 2016, a Frenchman of Moroccan origin stabbed a policeman outside his home in a Paris suburb and also killed his partner, who also worked for the police. The attacker claimed to have acted on behalf of the Islamic State terror group.
- On November 13, 2015, Paris was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. A total of 130 people died and 368 were injured. Two of the 10 attackers were Belgian citizens and three French.
- On January 7, 2015, two Islamist hitmen broke into the newsroom of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and murdered 12 people there. Another attacker killed a policewoman the next day and took hostages in a supermarket on January 9, killing four of them before being shot by the police themselves.
[ad_2]
