A relative of the sacristan victim of a knife attack cries in front of the Basilica Notre-Dame de Nice
Credit: VALERY HACHE /AFP
In a second attack which took place two hours later, an armed man threatened people on the streets of Avignon, 120 miles from Nice, before he was fatally shot by police. Police believe he was a far-Right extremist.
Elsewhere a security guard was stabbed and wounded outside the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
In France, two other men were arrested. One was seized while carrying a knife near a church in Sartrouville, a Paris suburb after his father reported he was about to carry out a Nice-style attack. A second man of Afghan origin and "known to intelligence services" was arrested carrying a long blade as he tried to board a train in Lyon.
“France is very clearly under attack,” declared President Emmanuel Macron.
Speaking from the scene, he said France had been targeted "over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief".
"And I say it with lots of clarity again today: we will not give any ground."
French President Emmanuel Macron, and Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, right, meet police officers following the knife attack in Nice
Credit: Eric Gaillard /Pool Reuters
France’s anti-terror prosecutor has launched an investigation into murder and attempted murder.
This is not the first time a French church has been the target of terror. In July, 2016, two Islamists slit the throat of 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel at a Mass at a Catholic church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, northern France. The Islamic State later claimed responsibility.
Mr Macron expressed special condolences to Catholics in France, where the Church condemned what it called "an unspeakable attack" and warned: "Christians must not become symbols to be slaughtered".
French MPs, meanwhile, temporarily suspended a debate on the new national lockdown to observe a moment’s silence in remembrance of those killed during the attack. Bells tolled in churches all around France in tribute to the victims.
Given the ongoing threat, France raised its terror alert to maximum level and Mr Macron announced that it would more than double the number of soldiers patrolling the streets from 3,000 to 7,000 – levels not seen since the 2015 Paris attacks.
They will protect key French sites, such as places of worship and schools.
Soldiers patrol the area around the Basilica Notre-Dame church in Nice, France, as the country's terror alert was raised to the highest level
Credit: Eric Gaillard /Pool Reuters
The Islamist attacks follow fury across the Muslim world at President Macron’s reaction to the murder of a school teacher two weeks ago.
History teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded outside his school in a Paris suburb after he showed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to his class in a lesson on free speech.
The assailant, an 18-year-old Chechen named Abdullakh Anzorov, apparently acted after some angry parents denounced the teacher on social media.
Mr Macron insisted that France’s cherished tradition of freedom expression, including mocking religion, must be protected, and promised a crackdown on Islamic extremism, including closing mosques and organisations accused of fomenting radicalism and violence.
That sparked condemnation from the leaders of several Muslim-majority nations, notably Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who questioned Mr Macron’s mental health and likened treatment of Muslims in France to Jews under Nazism.
This time, Turkey denounced the Nice attack and expressed “solidarity” with France, but added: ”We call on the French leadership to avoid further inflammatory rhetoric against Muslims and focus, instead, on finding the perpetrators of this and other acts of violence.”
French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday proffered "a message of peace to the Muslim world," saying France was "the country of tolerance."
"Do not listen to the voices that want to stoke distrust," he said in parliament.
Condemnations of the attack poured in from elsewhere.
Boris Johnson said: “Our thoughts are with the victims and their families, and the UK stands steadfastly with France against terror and intolerance.”
Donald Trump tweeted: "Our hearts are with the people of France. America stands with our oldest Ally in this fight.”
Pope Francis said: ‘I pray for the victims, for their families and for the beloved French people, so that they can react to evil with good.’
France has been on high alert since the January 2015 massacre at the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo which marked the beginning of a wave of jihadist attacks that have killed more than 250 people.
Tensions had already been high since the trial opened last month for 14 suspected accomplices in that attack.
The paper marked the start of the court proceedings by republishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that angered millions of Muslims worldwide.
Copies of the new edition of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo with a caricature of Turkish President Erdogan on its front page at a newspaper kiosk in Paris
Credit: Mohammed Badra/EPA
Just days later, an 18-year-old man from Pakistan seriously injured two people with a meat cleaver outside Charlie Hebdo’s former offices in Paris.
Abdallah Zekri, director general of the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM), said: "I can only denounce as strongly as possible this act of cowardice against the innocent."
He called on French Muslims to cancel festivities to mark the Mawlid, or the Prophet’s Birthday, which ends Thursday, "in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones.”
Additional reporting by Abdelatif Azdine in Nice
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