At least three people have been killed - two of them beheaded - and several others stabbed in a terrorist knife attack inside a cathedral in Nice.
The attack began around 9am just as Mass at the Notre Dame basilica - the largest Roman Catholic church in Nice - was getting underway.
Police quickly swarmed the area, where they shot and arrested the attacker, who has been taken to hospital. A police source said it appears he was acting alone.
#BREAKING: Knife attack reported in Nice, France. Two people reportedly killed. Few injured. More clear details are awaited. Mayor says initial details point to a terrorist attack. pic.twitter.com/GIM0zgHrlv
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) October 29, 2020
Mayor Christian Estrosi revealed that two of the victims died inside the church - a woman and a male church warden, both of whom were beheaded.
A second woman who had been stabbed in the neck managed to flee the cathedral and into a bar across the street where she died of her wounds, according to local reports.
Estrosi added that the attacker 'kept shouting Allahu Akbar even after being medicated', and that 'the meaning of his gesture is not in doubt'.
'Enough is enough,' he said. 'It's time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory.'
Estrosi said the victims had been killed in a 'horrible way'. 'The methods match, without doubt, those used against the brave teacher in Conflans Sainte Honorine, Samuel Paty,' he said.
He also called for churches around France to be given extra protection or closed as a precaution.
The attack happened less than half a mile from where another attacker plowed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in 2016, killing dozens.
Police confirmed that the anti-terror prosecutor has been charged with carrying out the investigation on charges of murder and attempted murder.
Emmanuel Macron led an emergency cabinet meeting on the attack, before leaving for Nice, where he is expected to arrive shortly.
French politicians were taking part in a debate on the country's new coronavirus restrictions when news of the attack reached them.
They observed a minute of silence before the debate broke up so an emergency security meeting could be held.
Images on French media showed the neighborhood locked down and surrounded by police and emergency vehicles. Sounds of explosions could be heard as sappers exploded suspicious objects.
The Catholic Church issued a statement, condemning the 'unspeakable act' and saying that 'Christians must not become a symbol to be cut down.'
The French Council of Muslim Worship also issued a statement strongly condemning the attack.
'As a sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their relatives, I call on the Muslims of France to cancel all the festivities of the Mawlid feast,' which takes place on October 28 and 29.
The attack is just the latest to strike France, after history teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in another attack north of Paris.
Paty was stabbed by an 18-year-old Chechen after he showed the cartoons to his students during a lesson on free speech.
Parents of pupils at the school had led a campaign against him, before the attack took place. Seven have been arrested.
Just a few weeks earlier, an 18-year-old Pakistani stabbed a wounded two people outside the old offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The man has admitted to police that he was targeting the magazine for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
It also comes amid mass protests in many Islamic countries against Emmanuel Macron, after the French President spoke up in defence of the cartoons.
Tweeting in Arabic, he wrote: 'Nothing makes us hold back, ever. We respect all differences in the spirit of peace. We never accept hate speech and defend rational debate.
'We will always stand by human dignity and universal values.'
His remarks have prompted demonstrations in Gaza, Turkey, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and boycotts of French products in Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Palestinian territories.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led outrage at Macron, suggesting that he is mentally ill and needs to have his health evaluated.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
