NBC News | Saphora Smith, Nancy Ing and Tim Stelloh | October 29, 2020
The suspect in an attack on a church that left three people dead was identified by authorities Thursday as a 21-year-old Tunisian national who entered France earlier this month.
France’s chief anti-terrorism prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, said in a news conference that the man entered the country on Oct. 9 and had previously been in Lampedusa, an Italian island that serves as a European entry point for migrants from Africa.
Authorities are investigating the attack as an act of suspected terrorism.
Ricard said the man, who has not been identified and wasn’t known to French intelligence officials, entered the Notre Dame basilica in the city of Nice at 8:15 a.m. Thursday.
Fifteen minutes later, the suspect began stabbing people, Ricard said. Two women, ages 60 and 44, and a 55-year-old man who was officiating part of the church service, died in the attack.
The older woman and man suffered serious injuries to their throats and were found dead inside the basilica, Ricard said. The other woman fled and was found dead at a nearby restaurant, Ricard said. She had been stabbed multiple times.
Witnesses inside the church described hearing the man shout “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great” in Arabic, Ricard said. Authorities found items they said belonged to the suspect, including a Quran, three knives and two cell phones.
Responding officers took the suspect into custody. He was seriously injured and remains in critical condition, Ricard said.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to protect schools and places of worship by more than doubling the number of soldiers deployed to protect against attacks.
Speaking from Notre Dame basilica, Macron said France had been attacked “over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief.”
“We will not give any ground,” he added.
Macron’s announcement to increase deployments from around 3,000 troops to 7,000 came hours after the suspected terror attack left the European country reeling.
France’s prime minister Jean Castex also said Thursday the country had raised its security alert status to the highest level, in what police described as a terrorist attack in the southern coastal city.
The Nice attack comes at a time of heightened tension between France and the Muslim world over the republication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad by the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo. France has Europe’s largest Muslim population.
The caricatures are considered deeply blasphemous by Muslims and have provoked anger among them across the world. It has also renewed a vociferous debate over the depictions that Muslims consider offensive but are protected by French freedom of speech laws.