France is facing the fear of deadly attacks after several people were stabbed at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice, prompting the country to raise its security alert status to the highest level.
This is what we know so far:
What happened?
A man armed with a 30cm (12 inches) knife began attacking people praying inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice.
He slit the throat of a 60-year-old woman, and a church worker, and badly wounded another woman.
The 60-year-old woman and the church employee died on the spot, while the other woman, who was 44, managed to make it out of the church into a nearby cafe, but later died from her wounds, Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi told reporters at the scene.
The sexton – a member of staff responsible for the upkeep of the church – was 55.
Prosecutors are treating the assault as an act of terrorism.
When did the attack happen?
The attack took place on Thursday at about 8.29 am local time (07:29 GMT), and came just days after thousands rallied across France in solidarity with teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded for having shown pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
It was not immediately clear if Thursday’s attack was connected to the cartoons, which Muslims consider blasphemous.
The victims
The church worker has been named as Vincent Loques, a father of two girls, according to Canon Philippe Asso, the church’s most senior cleric. He had opened the doors of the church and was preparing the building for the first Mass of the day.
“He did his job as a sexton very well,” said Gil Florini, a Catholic priest in Nice. “He was a very kind person.”
The two women who died have not been named. The killer’s first victim was a 60-year-old woman, who he tried to behead, and the other woman who died was a mother in her 40s.
“Tell my children I love them,” she managed to say before her death, according to French cable channel BFM TV.
Who is behind the attack?
According to reports by French news agency AFP, the man suspected of the attack is a 21-year-old Tunisian who arrived in Europe a few weeks ago. He has been named as Brahim Aouissaoui by French and Tunisian law enforcement sources.
The suspect landed in late September on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where he was placed in virus quarantine by authorities before being released with an order to leave Italian territory.
He arrived in France in early October, sources said.
France’s chief anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard says the attacked arrived in Nice by train at 6.47am (05:57 GMT) and spent nearly half an hour in the station before he headed to the church just 400 metres away.
“The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained. He is on his way to the hospital, he is alive,” Mayor Estrosi told reporters.
Police say that they found two other knives, two telephones and a copy of the Quran when they searched the scene after the attack.
Was it only one attack?
Other confrontations and attacks were reported in the southern French city of Avignon where police killed a man who threatened passersby with a handgun.
Shortly after the Nice attack, police in the city of Lyon said they arrested an Afghan who was spotted carrying a 30cm (12-inch) knife while trying to board a tram.
In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, state television reported a Saudi man was arrested in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after attacking and injuring a guard at the French consulate. The French embassy said the guard was in hospital though his life was not in danger.
Reaction
President Emmanuel Macron visited Nice after the attack calling it an “Islamist terrorist attack”.
Macron announced increased surveillance of churches by France’s Sentinelle military patrols, which would be bolstered to 7,000 troops from 3,000.
“Quite clearly, it is France that is being attacked,” he said. “If we are attacked, it is because of our values.”
Prime Minister Jean Castex raised France’s security alert to its highest level and said the government’s response would be firm and implacable.
In Paris, legislators in the National Assembly observed a minute’s silence in solidarity with the victims. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said the people of Nice “can count on the support of the city of Paris and of Parisians”.
A representative of the French Council for the Muslim Faith strongly condemned the attack. “As a sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones, I call on all Muslims in France to cancel all the celebrations of the holiday of Mawlid.”
The holiday is the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad and was celebrated on Thursday.
World leaders expressed solidarity with France after the attack.
