Three people were killed by a knife-wielding man at a basilica in the French city of Nice on Thursday in an apparent follow-up attack after a history teacher was beheaded near Paris two weeks ago.
Pope Francis tweeted in French: “I am close to the Catholic community of #Nice, in mourning after the attack which sowed death in a place of prayer and consolation. I pray for the victims, for their families and for the beloved French people, so that they can respond to evil with good.”
Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols tweeted: “I am horrified to hear of the fatal attacks in Notre Dame in Nice. People have been killed in a sacred place, which they had entered in order to pray. I know the Basilica well. It is much loved by the people of Nice and by so many visitors.”
The attacker, who police said shouted Allahu Akbar several times, including after his arrest, killed a guard and a woman inside the Basilica of Notre Dame of the Assumption. Police reported he tried to behead the woman. A second woman was injured and died in a nearby café where she had fled.
Shortly after the Nice attack, police shot dead a different man in Avignon in southern France who was threatening passers-by with a hand gun. According to AFP, he was also shouting Allahu Akbar.
The French bishops conference promptly issued a statement urging Catholics to pray for the victims “in these sorrowful hours”.
The attack appeared to be yet another killing in revenge for caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, which the teacher Samuel Paty had shown his pupils in a class on free speech. A Pakistani wounded two people last month outside the former Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, which first published the cartoons.
Radical Islamists have killed about 260 people in France in revenge attacks since the satirical weekly ran the caricatures in 2015. Four years ago in Nice, a radical Islamist drove a truck into crowds along the Promenade des Anglais, killing 86 people and injuring 458.
The French government has consistently defended the publication, saying the right to blaspheme is central to its secularism, or laïcité.
“The government's response will be firm and immediate,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said, raised the country's alert level to the highest possible, “terror attack emergency”.
President Emmanuel Macron flew to Nice to be on the scene.
Police shot the attacker and he was brought to hospital in a serious condition. The basilica stands near one of the busiest streets in the centre of Nice, on the French Riviera.
A national antiterrorist prosecutor’s office opened an inquiry against “murder linked to a terrorist enterprise” after the attack. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin ordered more security for churches and cemeteries before All Saints’ Day on Sunday.
The Vatican said Pope Francis was informed of the attack and sent a telegramme of condolence to Nice Bishop André Marceau. “Condemning most energetically such violent acts of terror, he sent assurances of his closeness to the French Catholic community and all French people,” it said.
Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen, where a priest was murdered in his church by an ISIS supporter in 2016, said the Muslim leader there had immediately called him to extend his condolences.
He told the weekly La Vie that police had issued a general warning about a possible terror attack. Police guards had also been reinforced in Paris.
“I admit that when I saw a young man in a hoodie in church this morning, I was filled with apprehension,” he said. “But we cannot give in to fear.”
He said in situations like this, one could only repeat the words of Jesus on the Cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the knife attack and said Turkey stood with the French people against violence and terrorism.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has criticised Macron for slamming radical Islam in a speech early this month, saying the French leader had “lost his way” and needed mental checks.
The Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi said: “At #Nice06 it was all the Christian world that was targeted. I express my thoughts to all Christians in France and the world.”
Estrosi wrote on Facebook: “Upset by the three victims including two dead inside Notre Dame Basilica and especially the guard so appreciated by parishioners.
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