Police in France say that three people have been killed in a knife attack in the city of Nice. Among those killed is also a woman, who was beheaded in the attack. According to BBC, Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said that everything pointed to a ‘terrorist attack at the heart of the Notre-Dame basilica.’
The prime suspect in the stabbing attack is believed to have been detained. France’s anti-terror prosecutors have launched a murder inquiry. Estrosi told reporters, “The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained, he is on his way to hospital, he is alive.”
The attacker was believed to have been acting alone.
The news of the attack arrived when the country’s lawmakers were debating the new nationwide lockdown to fight coronavirus. While French Prime Minister Jean Castex appealed for unity and cohesion, the parliament suspended the debate on coronavirus by observing one-minute silence
The French Council of the Muslim Faith has the Nice knife attack, expressing its solidarity with the families of those killed or injured in the Nice stabbing attack.
The development comes just days after a French teacher was beheaded in Paris for showing the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) to his students. The teacher’s beheading had prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to defend his country’s right to publish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). Macron had also triggered global outrage by saying that Islam was a religion in ‘crisis.’
His comments had prompted Muslims around the world to call for the boycott of French products. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had officially called his people to boycott French products before questioning the mental stability of
In July 2016, a lorry carrying guns and grenades had rammed into a crowd observing Bastille Day celebrations in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people.
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