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Police officers and passers-by in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice
Photo: Norbert Scanella / imago images / PanoramiC
The act could hardly have been more symbolic: In a knife attack in the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, three people were killed on Thursday morning - the perpetrator apparently wanted to behead them.
The place, type and time of the most recent attack hit France, already traumatized by numerous Islamist attacks, hard.
According to French media, the three dead are two 40 and 70 year old women and the church sexton.
At least six other people were seriously injured.
The elderly woman died in the church, apparently, she was half beheaded by a cut in the neck.
The sexton, too, is said to have had a large cut in his neck and died in church.
The 40-year-old victim apparently managed to escape seriously injured to a bar, where she also died from her injuries.
"Tell my children that I love them," she is said to have said before she died.
Around nine in the morning eyewitnesses heard gunshots in Nice.
They apparently fell when the police arrested the suspected perpetrator.
More information about the man is still pending - according to "BMFTV" it should be a 21-year-old Tunisian.
He was hospitalized injured after his arrest.
more on the subject
After the attack in Nice: France proclaims the highest terror warning level
Reactions to the bloody act in Nice: Merkel is "deeply shocked by the cruel murders"
Media reports: Alleged attacker in Avignon was wearing a jacket belonging to the right-wing extremist identities
More attacks in the morning
The attack in Nice was not to be the only attack on France that day.
In Avignon, in the south of France, the police killed a suspected attacker who had threatened passers-by and police officers with a weapon on Thursday morning at around 11:15 a.m.
Contrary to what was initially claimed, according to consistent media reports, the attacker does not appear to have an Islamist background - he is said to have worn a jacket worn by the right-wing extremist identities.
Also on Thursday morning, a man at the French consulate in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia attacked a security officer and injured him slightly.
The state news agency SPA reported that the perpetrator was arrested.
The man was around 40 years old and attacked the guard with a sharp tool, it said.
The French embassy in Riyadh spoke of a "knife attack" in a message.
It was initially unclear whether there was a connection between the acts.
In the morning France declared the highest terror warning level.
It applies nationwide, said Prime Minister Jean Castex in Paris.
The anti-terrorist public prosecutor also opened the investigation into "murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist act".
Solidarity and concern
In France, politicians showed solidarity with the residents and aid workers in Nice.
President Emmanuel Macron immediately traveled to Nice to get an idea of the situation on the ground.
He had already promised help to the city from Paris.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was "deeply shocked by the gruesome murders".
"The French nation is in Germany's solidarity in these difficult hours," she said, according to her spokesman.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also condemned the "heinous attack".
In this situation, Europe stands in solidarity with France, said the CDU politician.
She spoke out for a united appearance "against barbarism and fanaticism".
Parallels to other attacks
Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, spoke of a terrorist attack and an "Islamo-fascist act" immediately after the attack.
The alleged perpetrator, apparently injured, repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic: "God is greater").
According to the mayor, the place, the church, also indicates a religious fanatical attack.
Estrosi spoke of "pity, anger and anger" and described the murders in a speech in front of the crime scene as "the absolute horror, the absolute symbol".
The deed in the cathedral brings back memories of several Islamist attacks in France in the recent past.
Nice itself was the target of an assassination attempt on France's national holiday in 2016, when an Islamist raced on the beach promenade in a truck.
He killed 86 people and injured more than 400. The IS claimed the act for itself.
Twelve days later, in mid-July 2016, a church was also turned into a crime scene: In northern France, two Islamists murdered the 86-year-old Catholic priest Jacques Hamel i during morning mass in front of the altar.
Another believer was seriously injured.
Nice's mayor Estrosi also referred to the gruesome murder of the clergyman four years ago in his video address on Thursday.
Thursday's attack was an "attack on the entire Christian world".
But there are also parallels to the latest attack: just two weeks ago, an 18-year-old alleged Islamist beheaded the French history teacher Samuel Paty with a knife near Paris.
Paty had shown caricatures of Mohammed in class as an example of freedom of expression.
The murder of the teacher shocked France, tens of thousands took to the streets and expressed their solidarity with the secular values of the republic.
Hatred of France
In the past few days there had been threats and calls for a boycott against France in several Islamic countries.
The protests were sparked by Macron's remarks at the memorial service for the killed teacher Paty.
There the French President defended caricatures - including drawings critical of religion - in the name of freedom of expression.
France would "not forego caricatures and drawings," even if others did, Macron said.
He had also described Islam as a whole as a religion "in crisis".
After Macron's statements, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke of a "lynching campaign" against Muslims and called for a boycott of French goods.
Paris brought its ambassador back from Ankara in protest.
A French government spokesman described the verbal attacks from Turkey on Wednesday as "hateful".
The Islamic-conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also condemned the drawings.
According to Sisi, the limit to freedom of expression runs "where the feelings of more than 1.5 billion Muslims will be hurt."
Muslims should at the same time counter the supposedly perceived hatred by peaceful means and by legal means, he warned.
Ankara now strongly condemned the attack in Nice.
There is nothing that justifies violence and the killing of people, said the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
People who carried out such brutal attacks in such a holy place would have no religious, humanitarian or moral values.
We stand in solidarity with the people in France against terror and violence.
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