New Delhi: One woman was decapitated and two others killed on Thursday by a knife-wielding attacker shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ at a church in Nice, on the south-east coast of France.
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi, who called it an act of “terrorism”, wrote on Twitter that the brutal attack occurred at or near the city’s Notre Dame church, Reuters reported.
According to Estrosi, the attacker kept shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ even after being detained by police. “The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained… he is on way to hospital, he is alive,” the mayor told the media.
“Enough is enough… It’s time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory,” Estrosi said.
The Mayor informed that one of the people killed inside the church is believed to be the church warden, while a woman victim had tried to escape from the church and fled to a bar opposite the building.
Police officials said three were confirmed dead while several others were injured in the attack.
A security cordon — consisting of police armed with automatic weapons, ambulances and fire service personnel — has been set up around the church.
This is the second suspected terrorist attack in France this month. A fortnight ago, a history teacher was stabbed and “decapitated” in front of his school near Paris.
The victim had shown caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad to students during a lesson earlier this month, officials said.
