Wave of terrorist attacks agitates France: three attacks in a day, one is prevented

What happened in Nice

A man attacked churchgoers with a knife in Notre-Dame cathedral in Nice on Thursday morning.

According to the latest data as of 30 October, three people died. The attack took place directly in the cathedral. A man and woman were stabbed in the neck and died on the scene. Another woman managed to escape and get to a cafe across the street despite injuries. However, she died from the injuries later.

Mayor of the city Christian Estrosi said that one of the victims was beheaded. He also called what happened a terrorist attack and wrote on Twitter that allegedly the murderer was shouting the phrase “Allahu akbar” when he was arrested.

Moreover, the mayor said that one of the killed people was a priest. He also told journalists that the police wounded the attacker during the arrest. The criminal was alive and was taken to hospital, Reuters said. Christian Estrosi ordered to close all cathedrals in the city after this attack. President of France Emmanuel Macron immediately headed to Nice.

Other attacks

The police also killed a man who went outside and threatened passers-by and law enforcement workers with a knife not far from Avignon (a commune in southeast France).

Local mass media assume that this lawbreaker also shouted “Allahu akbar”.

According to the press, another attack was prevented in Lyon.

Journalists say that a man with a knife was arrested there. It is considered he was plotting a terrorist attack.

There was an attempt at attacking employees of France’s embassy in Saudi Arabia.

Local television said that a stranger stabbed one of the security guards of the diplomatic mission in Jeddah. The attacker was arrested, the guard didn’t have serious injuries but was anyway taken to hospital.

Consequences

A representative of the French сouncil of Muslims criticised the attacks and urged co-religionists to refuse the celebration of Mawlid — Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

Press Secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov claimed that it was absolutely unacceptable to not only kill people but also insult the feelings of religious believers. President of Russia Vladimir Putin already sent his condolences to his French colleague Emmanuel Macron.

Head of Russia’s Spiritual Muslim Assembly Albir Krganov condemned the triple murder in Nice: “We condemn the murder of people, any person. Nothing, no views, no beliefs can justify a murder”.

At the same time, Muslims organised a protest against insults of the feelings of religious believers in front of the building of the French embassy in Moscow. They were indignant about “Islamophobic” measures taken by Paris after the teacher was killed on 16 October.

Paty’s murder

A middle-school teacher Samuel Paty was killed in Parisian suburbs almost two weeks ago, on 16 October. 18-year-old local citizen Abdullah Anzorov killed and then beheaded him. He has lived most of his life in France but was born in Moscow.

Anzorov decided to punish the teacher for demonstrating caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in tolerance classes. Moreover, the killer himself didn’t study at school and just responded to an urge of one of the students’ father.

After that, mass demonstrations began in France. The murdered teacher began to be named a brave man and hero. The authorities began to project caricatures of different religions on the walls of houses. A lot of Muslim clerics named such performances unallowable and insulting Islam — for instance, they included head of Chechnya Republic Ramzan Kadyrov.