Greek Orthodox priest is fighting for life in hospital after being shot twice in the stomach in Lyon

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A Greek Orthodox priest is fighting for his life in hospital after being shot by an attacker carrying a sawn-off hunting rifle in the French city of Lyon.

Nikolaos Kakavelakis, a 45-year-old father of two, is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after being hit in the abdomen.

Authorities have arrested a suspect after locking down part of the city and launching a manhunt for the assailant amid fears of more attacks. 

It came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron said it’s ‘our duty to protect our freedoms’ as furious protests continue to rage across the Muslim world against his comments over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.   

Macron gave a long interview setting out his vision to Qatar-based TV channel Al-Jazeera today. 

‘I can understand that people could be shocked by the caricatures but I will never accept that violence can be justified,’ he said.

‘I consider it our duty to protect our freedoms and our rights,’ he added.

Fury against French President Emmanuel Macron continues to rage across the Muslim world as protests were held today in India, Pakistan and Iraq over the premier’s stance on Charlie Hebdo cartoons.  

Macron has become the focal point of Islamic fury after defending Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which were used as justification for a teacher’s murder in the Paris suburbs two weeks ago.  

After three people were murdered in Nice Thursday in the latest in a long line of terror attacks in France, Macron said that France will not ‘give up on our values’ despite fury at the caricatures. 

Protests are being staged across the Muslim world, with demonstrations seen in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and India.  

‘A person who could correspond to the description given by the initial witnesses has been placed in policy custody,’ Lyon’s public prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet said in a statement, adding that the suspect had not been been carrying a weapon when he was arrested.

Investigators are now trying to establish the man’s identity, the statement said. He was reportedly arrested in a kebab shop in the city. 

Kakavelakis, a Greek citizen, was locking up his church when a gunman struck at around 4pm on Saturday.   

Police cordoned off the largely residential neighbourhood around the church and warned the public on social networks to stay away. 

Witnesses to the attack on Kakavelakis, who has been in France since 2012, said they heard the sound of two gunshots and then the sound of a woman screaming.     

It is thought that the woman’s screams caused the attacker to flee. 

The gunman was described as ‘male and in his forties’ armed with a sawn-off hunting rifle. He is thought to have fired his weapon twice.  

The church where Kakavelakis ministered is well known to the sizeable Greek community in Lyon.

It is thought that there were no guards outside the Church, as there are at other Christian places of worship in France.  

Kakavelakis is an Archpriest, a term used in Eastern Christian religions to describe a non-monastic priest, who was easily identifiable as a member of the clergy because of his distinctive religious attire.

The Assembly of Orthodox Bishops in France (AEOF) said it ‘condemned such acts of violence that threaten lives and spread a general climate of insecurity’. 

The reason for the shooting was unclear, Lyon Mayor Gregory Doucet told reporters on Saturday as the Lyon prosecutor opened an investigation for attempted murder.

‘No theory is favoured, no theory is ruled out,’ Doucet said. ‘We don’t know at this stage the motive for this attack.’

Antoine Callot, the pastor at another Greek Orthodox church in Lyon, identified the wounded priest as Nikolas Kakavelakis, a 45-year-old father of two, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Mr Callot told the AP that the Greek Orthodox community in Lyon has not received any threats, but said he immediately asked police for security protection at his church after the shooting.

‘We are anxious and anguished. It’s really horrible,’ he said. ‘Now we need to hide and be careful.’ 

Sunday’s violence follows an attack at a church in Nice on Thursday in which three people were killed and comes amid high tensions between France and the Muslim world over comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron in defence of controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

French anti-terrorist authorities were not investigating Saturday’s shooting, although the interior minister activated a special emergency team to follow the case while the gunman was still at large. 

Following the attack, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said: ‘This is a very serious incident. Details are still emerging. A crisis unit has been set up.’   

Castex later reiterated government promises to deploy military forces at religious sites and schools.

He said French people can ‘count on the nation to allow them to practise their religion in full safety and freedom’.

Fanny Dubot, the Mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Lyon, said ‘the security initiative had been stepped up’ in Lyon since the Nice attack, but she was ‘not aware’ of specific measures being made to secure the Greek Orthodox church in her district.

Gerard Darmanin, France’s Interior Minister, confirmed he had opened a crisis unit in Paris, and told anyone in Lyon to ‘avoid the area and follow instructions’.

Those living in the area were told to lock themselves in their homes and stay away from public places. 

The attack came on Saturday as President Macron said it was ‘our duty to protect our freedoms’ as furious protests continued to rage against Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that he has backed.

Mr Macron told Qatar-based TV channel Al Jazeera: ‘I can understand that people could be shocked by the caricatures but I will never accept that violence can be justified.

‘I consider it our duty to protect our freedoms and our rights.’ 

Saturday’s attack follows the murder of three people in an Islamist terrorist attack on a Catholic basilica in the southern city of Nice on Thursday.

Brahim Aoussaoui, the 21-year-old Tunisian behind the attack, survived despite being shot 14 times by police, and is currently under armed guard in a secure hospital wing.

French President Emmanuel Macron immediately declared France ‘under attack’ following disturbing incidents related to extremists targeting Christians.

The attacks come amid fury across the Islamic world over President Macron’s defence of satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed and mocking the Muslims who revere him.

There have been numerous calls from Al-Qaeda to attack French interests. 

During a visit to emergency service personnel in Nice on Thursday, Mr Macron said: ‘We won’t give in. Once again, our country has been hit by an Islamist terrorist attack.

‘Once again, this morning, it was three of our compatriots who fell, in Nice, in this basilica. Very clearly, it is France that is under attack.’

Macron’s comments followed the killing of school teacher Samuel Paty in the Paris suburb of Conflans Sainte Honorine earlier this month.

Mr Paty was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee after the teacher showed the Charlie Hebdo cartoons to children.

Mr Macron has placed 4000 extra soldiers on the streets of France, in part to protect churches and other places of worship. 

Fury against French President Emmanuel Macron continues to rage across the Muslim world as protests were held today in India, Pakistan and Iraq over the premier’s stance on Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

Macron has become the focal point of Islamic fury after defending Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed following the murder of Mr Paty. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Western countries mocking Islam on Wednesday of wanting to ‘relaunch the Crusades’, heightening a confrontation with France over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that have stirred anger in Muslim-majority countries.

In a speech to lawmakers of his ruling AK Party in parliament, Erdogan also said that standing against attacks on the Prophet was ‘an issue of honour for us’, suggesting that Ankara may be digging in for a prolonged standoff. 

The caricatures are considered blasphemous by Muslims. 

Erdogan had already sharply criticised Macron at the weekend, saying the French leader needed a mental health check, prompting France to recall its ambassador from Ankara. 

On Monday, Erdogan urged a boycott of French products.

The Turkish leader again questioned Macron’s state of mind on Wednesday and, in remarks addressed to ‘the West’, described colonial powers as ‘murderers’ for their record in Africa and the Middle East.

‘They literally want to relaunch the Crusades. Since the Crusades, the seeds of evil and hatred have started falling on these (Muslim) lands and that’s when peace was disrupted.’

Turkish officials said separately Ankara would take legal and diplomatic steps in response to a caricature of Erdogan in Charlie Hebdo, which officials called a ‘disgusting effort’ to ‘spread its cultural racism and hatred’.

The cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo showed Erdogan sitting in a white t-shirt and underpants, holding a canned drink and lifting the skirt of a woman wearing a hijab to reveal her naked bottom.  

‘Our battle against these rude, ill-intentioned and insulting steps will continue until the end, with reason but determination,’ Turkey’s Communications Directorate said.

State media reported that Turkish prosecutors had launched an investigation into Charlie Hebdo’s executives. 

The French government saw the beheading as an attack on freedom of speech, and said it would defend the right to display the cartoons.

Macron has said he would redouble efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs subverting values in fiercely secular France. 

France’s foreign ministry on Tuesday issued safety advice to French citizens in Muslim-majority countries including Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq and Mauritania, advising them to exercise caution. 

They should stay away from any protests over the cartoons and avoid any public gatherings, the advice said.

In Cairo, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said freedom of expression should stop if it offended more than 1.5 billion people – the global Muslim population

The Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar university, one of the world’s most eminent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, urged the international community to criminalise ‘anti-Muslim’ actions.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo today condemned what he called ‘terrorist’ attacks in France, but also warned that remarks by President Macron had ‘insulted Islam’ and ‘hurt the unity of Muslims everywhere.’

Conservative Islamic organisations in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, have called for protests and boycotts of French goods, sharing an image of Macron as a red-eyed devilish snail.

‘Freedom of speech that injures the noble purity and sacred values and symbol of religion is so wrong, it shouldn’t be justified and it needs to stop,’ the Indonesian leader, who is known by his popular name Jokowi, said in a televised address.

He added, however, that ‘linking religion to acts of terrorism is a massive mistake. Terrorists are terrorists.’