Three dead and one seriously injured in Nice attack

Three people have been killed and several more wounded in a suspected terror attack on a Catholic church in central Nice on the French Riviera, its mayor, Christian Estrosi, has announced. 

"I confirm that everything suggests a terrorist attack in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice." Everything seems to suggest that it is a crime by a fascist Jihadist criminal. He did not stop shouting Allah is great while the security services were trying to neutralise him," Estrosi wrote on his Twitter account.

Around 9 a.m., according to the French media, a man with a knife attacked a woman by cutting her throat inside the church and stabbed another victim who, according to the Mayor of Nice, was the building's security guard. The third victim was killed in a bar in front of the basilica, where he had taken refuge. 

 The perpetrator of the attack was shot and wounded before being taken to hospital, according to Le Monde. 

France’s National Antiterrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) announced that it had opened an investigation for “murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist undertaking” and “criminal terrorist association.” He was entrusted to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI). The RAID team (in charge of Search, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence) and the BRI (the Research and Intervention Brigade) combed the building while the neighbourhood was evacuated and cordoned off.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that a crisis meeting at the Ministry of the Interior was underway. Both Prime Minister Jean Castex and President Emmanuel Macron left their duties to join the crisis unit.

The Mayor attributed the attack to "Islamo-Fascism" and said he had spoken to the President, Emmanuel Macron, who is planning to go to the scene in the next few hours. 

 In the last few hours, the French police are said to have arrested a suspect in Avignon, in the south of France, who was attempting to attack passers-by with a knife, shouting "Allah is great", according to the French media 

Saudi Arabian security forces on Thursday arrested a citizen who attacked a security guard at the French consulate in the city of Jeddah in western Saudi Arabia with a sharp object and was slightly injured, the official SPA agency reported.

If the first suspicions were confirmed, the Nice attack would be the third Jihadist attack in scarcely four weeks. 

On 25 September a Pakistani refugee in Paris attacked with knives and attempted to kill several people at the doors of the former editorial office of Charlie Hebdo weekly. Two weeks later Samuel Paty, a teacher at a secondary school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, on the outskirts of Paris, was beheaded after showing caricatures of Mohammed in his classes. 

Nice is a city hit by radical Islam. On 14 July 2016, on Bastille Day, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel killed 86 people and injured 458 others while driving a lorry. 

On 26 July of the same year, a similar attack to that of this young man also took place in a church, where two terrorists stabbed the priest of Sait-Etienne du-Rouvray and seriously wounded a parishioner.

In recent weeks the debate on radical Islamism has strained France's relations with the Arab countries. The firm decision of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to defend one of the pillars of the liberal democracies: freedom of expression, with his declarations of "not renouncing the publication of the cartoons" of Mohammed, has generated tension between France and the Arab countries. 

Macron made these statements last Wednesday during the tribute to Professor Samuel Paty, who was beheaded by a young Chechen and a follower of radical Islamism. 

Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Kuwait denounced the publication of the cartoons of the prophet in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo -which suffered a terrorist attack five years ago- and in recent days there have been many calls on social networks to boycott French products.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led this open war against Macron, claiming that the French President needs a "mental therapy" because of his "attitude towards Muslims". 

A few days ago, the French president announced a bill that would prevent the radicalization of the most vulnerable communities. "Radical Islamism, by creating laws above those that currently exist in the country, is a danger for France because sometimes it translates into a counter-society," Macron said. 

The controversial bill, which will be presented in December, includes among other rules: stricter monitoring of sports organisations and other associations so that they do not become a focus of radicalisation; an end to the exchange programme for foreign imams arriving in France; the control of methods of financing mosques and certain restrictions on homeschooling.