Emmanuel Macron: “France is under attack”

The police arrested the attacker: he would have acted alone. The Pope: “Savage act”. A man killed in Avignon who had lashed out at the police shouting Allah Akbar: a guard from the French consulate in Jeddah was stabbed.

Knife attack in the Notre-Dame church in Nice. Three people were killed inside the church in the heart of the city this morning around nine: a woman was beheaded, a man – the sacristan – slaughtered. The third victim, a woman, died of injuries sustained in a bar where she had sought refuge on the run. Then there is a seriously injured person, hit in the churchyard in front of the place of worship.

It is the second similar attack that took place in France in a short time: ten days ago in the banlieue of Paris, Professor Samuel Paty was beheaded. With a message sent to the bishop of Nice, the Pope condemned the attack, calling it “a savage act”.

The assailant, wounded by the special forces who intervened on the spot, was stopped and taken to hospital. According to initial information, he acted alone: ​​he was 25, of Maghrebi origin and was not reported in the lists of potential suspects of the French police.

Nice has already been hit by a terrorist attack on the night of 14 July 2016.

“There is no doubt that he was an Islamic-fascist militant” says the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi according to whom the assailant continued to shout “Allah Akbar” while the rescuers were taking him to the hospital.

Macron, “France is under attack”

“France is under attack” said Emmanuel Macron, “we will not give up”. “We will increase the presence of the army in the streets, we will protect all places of worship and schools so that the feast of All Saints can pass in peace and then return to class”. “Whatever religion you belong to, whether you are a believer or an atheist, we must unite and not give in to a divisive spirit”.

“Catholics have the support of all of France. Religion must be exercised freely, because it is a value. You must have the possibility of choosing your own cult”. “Tomorrow new measures will be taken in the Defense Council” against terrorism. The French president announced, meeting the press in Nice in his first reaction to the attack.

Macron also announced the passage from 3,000 to 7,000 the soldiers of the ‘Sentinelle’ operation, in charge of armed counter-terrorism surveillance by the army. Since 2015, after the attacks, the military has been called to reinforce the surveillance in the streets and at sensitive places.

Before the speech, Macron spent a long time talking with the inspectors who are in charge of the investigation and then left without making any other statements. Prime Minister Jean Castex, who was speaking in parliament about the new lockdown that begins this evening, asked the deputies for a minute of silence. With the stabbing near the former Charlie Hebdo headquarters in late September, Paty’s beheading is the third attack in just over a month in the wake of protests over the republication of Charlie Hebdo caricatures.

Coordinated attacks?

Shortly after the events in Nice, two other episodes increased the tension further: a man armed with a knife attempted to attack the police officers on the street around 11.15 in Avignon. Europe 1 reports. The attacker would have shouted “Allah Akbar” and threatened the police officers who reacted by opening fire and killing him. And in Jeddah, the second largest city in Saudi Arabia, a guard from the French consulate was reportedly stabbed: she is wounded but not in serious condition