What we know so far about the terrorist attack in Nice, France

A man armed with a knife slit the throats of three people in the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption basilica, before being wounded and arrested by the police while praising Allah

(photo: VALERY HACHE / AFP via Getty Images) Already severely tested by the Covid-19 pandemic and the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty less than two weeks ago, France on the morning of October 29 was shaken by a new fundamentalist terrorist attack in Nice. The attack took place around 9 am on Thursday 29 October, when a man armed with a knife attacked and killed three people in the basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in the French city, before being stopped by gunshots from fire and arrested by the municipal police.

The Elysée immediately announced that French President Emmanuel Macron would go to the site of the Nice attack in the early afternoon - as it later happened - reports the daily Le Monde. Furthermore, while the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin was implementing a strengthening of surveillance in places of worship and cemeteries, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that the national anti-terrorism plan Vigipirate passes to the "attack alert" level throughout the French territory .

The first two victims, a man and a woman, were massacred inside the basilica (the woman was beheaded, the man was slaughtered, according to police sources). The third woman was stabbed instead in a bar in front of the church, where she had taken refuge. The French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) has opened an investigation into assassination and attempted murder. According to police sources in Le Monde, the alleged perpetrator repeatedly shouted "Allahu akbar" while being transported from the basilica to the hospital, which suggests that his terrorist act is based on religious motivations. In France, the return to the scene of Charlie Hebdo's cartoons continues to be discussed: the Parisian satirical newspaper has just published a controversial cartoon depicting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has led to tensions in relations between the transalpine country and the Islamic world .