NICE, France (Reuters) – A woman was beheaded by an assailant with a knife who also killed two other people at a church on Thursday in the French city of Nice, police said during of an incident that the city’s mayor described as terrorism
Mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter that the knife attack occurred in or near the town’s Notre-Dame church and that police arrested the assailant
Police said three people died in the attack and several were injured
A police source said a woman was beheaded French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a beheading that occurred during the attack
Reuters journalists at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons had set up a security cordon around the church, which is on Avenue Jean Médecin in Nice, the main shopping street in the city Ambulances and fire service vehicles were also on the scene
The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading at the beginning of the month of Samuel Paty, professor at the French college in Paris by a man of Chechen origin
The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics lesson
It was not immediately clear what the motive for the attack on Nice was, or if there was any connection to the cartoons, which Muslims consider blasphemous
Since Paty’s murder, French officials – backed by many ordinary citizens – have reaffirmed the right to display the cartoons, and the footage has been widely shown during marches in solidarity with the slain teacher
This has sparked anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing French leader Emmanuel Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda
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France, Terrorism, Nice, Attack
News from the world – United States – Three dead as a woman beheaded in a knife attack in a French church
SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com
