Knife attack in Nice: Three people killed in attack on church -

20 Minutes

  • A man killed three people this morning in the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice.

  • According to the mayor of the city, Christian Estrosi (LR), "Nice is once again a victim of Islamo fascism".

  • This attack brings back memories of July 14, 2016, when a man killed 86 people in an act claimed by ISIS.

Facing the Notre Dame de Nice basilica, behind the white and red rubalises that bar access to the religious building where an assailant armed with a knife killed three people, Michele is in tears.

“We have just learned that our sacristan has been assassinated.

It's a shock.

I imagine him, I always see him lighting the candles.

And there I am told that he is no more!

», Breaths the young parishioner collapsed.

At his side, Laura, who also attends the parish assiduously, is as revolted as moved: “Kill Christians in the church!

You imagine ?

We are really their target!

"

"Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar"

"Nice, like France today, is paying a much too heavy price, by being once again a victim of Islamo fascism", declared a little earlier the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, who came to the meeting. meets journalists gathered on "the avenue".

"There is no doubt that the author of these acts, who kept repeating in front of us" Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar "while he was medicalized on the spot, [claims to be part of this movement]", said the mayor.

On the phone, a woman loaded with parcels shares her dismay: “Our religion is screwed up, I can't take it anymore.

"

The memory of July 14

This terrorist attack, which occurs less than two weeks after that of which Samuel Paty was the victim, especially in Nice revives the memory of the attack of July 14, 2016, on the nearby Promenade des Anglais.

A ram truck driven by a Tunisian living in the city caused the death of 86 people, and injured more than 400 among onlookers who came to watch the fireworks.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the carnage two days later.

"We are sad and powerless to witness this new attack which revives the pain of our wounds which have not yet healed" writes on its Facebook page the association Promenade des Anges, which brings together victims of this attack of July 14.

This time it was a church that was the scene of the tragedy.

A church located in the heart of Nice, on Avenue Jean-Médecin, the city's most commercial axis.

A church backing onto a neighborhood where the Muslim community is very large.

"We will not fall into this trap"

“There is an attempt to take France hostage in relation to its Muslims, judge Boubekeur Bekri, vice-president of the regional council of the Muslim religion Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur.

We will not fall into this trap.

I would like to say forcefully, with all our guts, how dismayed and revolted we are.

We are people who are there for our country, France.

Those who believed that we are the weak link are seriously mistaken.

We refuse !

"

At the start of the afternoon, while the President of the Republic was on his way, life was taking its course - almost - normally in the shopping streets around the basilica.

On the eve of a new confinement, onlookers come and go from one store to another, sometimes unaware of the horror that has occurred a few meters from them.

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  • Society

  • Terrorist attack

  • Terrorism