Three killed in knife attack at French church
A woman was beheaded and two others were killed in what police and officials say was a suspected terrorist attack Thursday at a church in the southern French city of Nice.
The attacker, who was described as wielding a knife and shouting "Allahu Akbar", was quickly detained after being shot by police.
Several other people were injured. The French anti-terrorist prosecutor's department said it had been asked to investigate the attack.
Nice's mayor, Christian Estrosi, said one of the victims was believed to be the warden at the Notre Dame church, and added they were killed in, quote, "a horrible way."
Estrosi added that the attack had similarities to the killing of Samuel Paty, a French teacher beheaded earlier this month in a Paris suburb by a man of Chechen origin.
The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson.
Since the teacher's killing, French officials and politicians - backed by many ordinary citizens - have re-asserted the right to display the cartoons.
That's prompted an outpouring of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing French leader Emmanuel Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.
