Nice ‘terror’ attack: Two dead, several wounded, attacker arrested, police source says
Two people are beheaded and several others wounded in terrorist knife rampage at a church in Nice before attacker is shot and arrested
- Two people have been beheaded and several more stabbed after a knife attack at a cathedral in Nice
- City’s mayor said ‘everything suggests a terror attack’ after knife rampage began around 9am local time
- Police rushed to the area where they shot and arrested the perpetrator, according to local reports
- Comes fortnight after teacher was beheaded near Paris; a month after stabbings near Charlie Hebdo offices
Two people have been beheaded and several others stabbed in a terrorist knife attack at a cathedral in Nice.
The attack began around 9am, according to local reports, before police swarmed the area, where they shot and arrested the attacker.
The city’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, tweeted: ‘I am on site with the [police] who arrested the perpetrator of the attack.
‘I confirm that everything suggests a terrorist attack in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice.’
At least two people have been killed and several others wounded after what is believed to be a terrorist knife attack at the Notre Dame basilica in Nice
The attack is thought to have begun around 9am before police were called, and arrested the perpetrator. The area is now cordoned off
The attack is just the latest to strike France, after an 18-year-old Pakistani stabbed a wounded two people outside the old offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The man has admitted to police that he was targeting the magazine for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Earlier this month a French history teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded in another attack north of Paris – also over cartoons of the Prophet.
Paty was stabbed by an 18-year-old Chechen after he showed the cartoons to his students during a lesson on free speech.
Parents of pupils at the school had led a campaign against him, before the attack took place. Seven have been arrested.
It also comes amid mass protests in many Islamic countries against Emmanuel Macron, after the French President spoke up in defence of the cartoons.
Tweeting in Arabic, he wrote: ‘Nothing makes us hold back, ever. We respect all differences in the spirit of peace. We never accept hate speech and defend rational debate.
‘We will always stand by human dignity and universal values.’
More to follow…
