3 Killed In Attack On Nice Church

3 killed and one beheaded in an attack on a Catholic Church in Nice. A Pakistani national has been arrested.

A woman has been decapitated in a suspected terror attack in Nice, French police say.

Three people have died and several others are injured after a knife attack took place near the Notre Dame church.

In a separate incident shortly after, French police confirmed a man was shot dead near Avignon, after threatening passers-by with a handgun in the district of Montfavet.

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a man was arrested after stabbing and wounding a guard at the French consulate, state media reported.

Nice's mayor Christian Estrosi tweeted the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" several times.

"Everything suggests a terrorist attack," he added.

French members of the elite tactical police unit RAID enter to search the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice as forensics officers wait outside after a knife attack in Nice on October 29, 2020. - A man wielding a knife outside a church in the southern French city of Nice slit the throat of one person, leaving another dead and injured several others in an attack on Thursday morning, officials said. The suspected assailant was detained shortly afterwards, a police source said, while interior minister

Three people have died and several others are injured after a knife attack reportedly took place near the Notre Dame church.
Several people have been injured in the attack, French police said
He told reporters: "The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained, he is on his way to hospital, he is alive."

President Emmanuel Macron is due to visit Nice, Estrosi said.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said a police operation is under way and encouraged people to stay away from the area. He is holding a crisis meeting into the incident.

French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a decapitation having occurred in the attack.

Meanwhile, the French anti-terrorist prosecutor's department has been asked to investigate the incident.

The assailant was believed to be acting alone, an official said.

Play Video - Scene of 'terror attack' in Nice
Nice's mayor Christian Estrosi tweeted: 'Everything suggests a terrorist attack.'
In Paris, lawmakers in the National Assembly observed a minute's silence in solidarity with the victims.

Reuters journalists at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons had put up a security cordon around the
Notre Dame church, which is on Nice's Jean Medecin avenue, the city's main shopping thoroughfare.

Sounds of explosions could be heard as sappers detonated suspicious objects.

It comes as the country is under high alert for terrorist attacks following the beheading earlier this month of French middle school teacher Samuel Paty in Paris.

French members of the elite tactical police unit RAID enter to search the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice as forensics officers wait outside after a knife attack in Nice on October 29, 2020. - A man wielding a knife outside a church in the southern French city of Nice slit the throat of one person, leaving another dead and injured several others in an attack on Thursday morning, officials said. The suspected assailant was detained shortly afterwards, a police source said, while interior minister 

Those caricatures were published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and cited by the men who gunned down the newspaper's editorial meeting in 2015, killing 12.

It was not immediately clear what the motive was for the Nice attack, or if there was any connection to the incidents in Avignon or Jeddah; or to the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.

Mr 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."

Play Video - Minute's silence in French national assembly
The French National Assembly in Paris held a minute's silence for victims of the attack in Nice.
He added: "Attack in Nice, attack in Avignon, attack on the French consulate in Saudi Arabia. It is not a coincidence."

Since Mr Paty's killing, French officials - backed by many ordinary citizens - have re-asserted the right to display the cartoons, and the images have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with the killed teacher.

That has prompted an outpouring of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing
Emmanuel Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.

Commenting on Thursday's attack the Russian government said it was unacceptable to kill people but also "unacceptable to insult religious believers."

Two people were stabbed and wounded in Paris on 25 September this year near the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo.

A man originally from Pakistan was arrested over the attack.

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