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Police officers at the crime scene in Lyon
Photo: CECILE MANTOVANI / REUTERS
A clergyman was shot in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon on Saturday afternoon.
As the broadcaster BFMTV reports, citing the local fire department, the Orthodox priest was critically injured.
A few hours after the attack, the police arrested a suspect.
The incident is said to have occurred in rue Saint-Lazare in Lyon, not far from a Greek Orthodox church.
The priest is said to have been closing the church at around 4 p.m. at the time of the crime.
The perpetrator is said to have fired at least two shots from a handgun and, according to initial findings, acted alone.
The 52-year-old victim suffered serious abdominal injuries, according to the AP news agency.
Emergency services are on site, the crime scene has been cordoned off.
The authorities urge residents of the region to avoid the area.
It was only on Thursday that a man attacked several people with a knife in Nice in the south of France, killing at least three.
The investigators assume a terrorist background.
Two weeks ago, the Paris history teacher Samuel Paty was allegedly beheaded by an 18-year-old from Chechnya - apparently because he had discussed a cartoon of Mohammed in class.
The renewed publication of Mohammed caricatures by the satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" has heated up the mood against France in Muslim countries.
In countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, thousands of people took to the streets in anti-French protests.
On January 7, 2015, eleven people were killed in an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack on the editorial staff.
The French government expects further attacks and has thousands of soldiers in schools and religious sites to protect citizens.
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ala / AP / Reuters