France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex said the country’s threat level will be raised to its maximum after an attack near a church killed three people Thursday in Nice. The city’s mayor described the incident as terrorism.
City Mayor Christian Estrosi stated on Twitter that the knife attack had happened in or near the city’s Notre Dame church and that the French authorities had detained the attacker. A police source informed Reuters that a woman was decapitated.
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in France, including today’s heinous attack in Nice inside a church.
In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, “I strongly condemn the recent terrorist attacks in France, including today’s heinous attack in Nice inside a church. Our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the people of France. India stands with France in the fight against terrorism.”
Meanwhile in another incident of stabbing in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi man was arrested in Jeddah after attacking a guard with a “sharp tool” at the French consulate on Thursday, Reuters quoted Saudi state TV as saying.
The two attacks come while France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of French middle school teacher Samuel Paty in Paris by a man of Chechen origin.
A top UN official has strongly condemned the “barbaric attack” in a French church on Thursday, stressing that such heinous acts targeting civilians, including worshippers, are intolerable and “utterly unjustifiable”.
High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Miguel Moratinos “strongly condemns the barbaric attack” that killed three people — two women and a man — at the Notre-Dame Basilica in the city of Nice on the southeast coast of France.
Moratinos “stresses that such heinous attacks targeting civilians, including worshippers, are intolerable and utterly unjustifiable whenever, wherever and by whomsoever committed,” a statement issued by the spokesperson for the High Representative said.
