NICE, France (AP) - A man armed with a knife Thursday attacked people inside a French church and killed three, prompting the government to raise its security alert to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
The attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice was the third in two months that French authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class after the images were republished by a satirical newspaper targeted in a 2015 attack.
The assailant in Thursday's attack was seriously wounded by police and hospitalized after the killings at the Notre Dame Basilica, which is located a half mile from the site in 2016 where another attacker plowed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd, killing dozens of people.
France's anti-terrorism prosecutor said the suspect is a Tunisian born in 1999 who arrived Sept. 20 in Italy by reaching the Mediterranean island of Lanpedusa and traveled Oct. 9 to Paris. He was carrying a copy of Islam's holy book, the Quran, and had a bag with two unused knives, prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard told a news conference late Thursday.
A bag with his personal affairs was also found containing two unused knives, the prosecutor said. He said the attacker was not on the radar of intelligence agencies as a potential threat.
Ricard detailed the gruesome scene encountered inside the Nice basilica where a man and woman were killed by the attacker. The 60-year-old woman suffered "a very deep throat slitting, like a decapitation," Ricard said. The 55-year-old man died after deep cuts to his throat, the prosecutor added. The third victim, a 44-year-old woman, managed to flee the church but died at a nearby restaurant.
An investigation was opened for murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, a common term for such crimes. French President Emmanuel Macron said he would immediately increase the number of soldiers deployed to protect schools and religious sites from around 3,000 to 7,000.
The attack in Nice came amid a fierce debate in France and beyond over the republication of the Muhammad caricatures by satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The French consulate in the Saudi city of Jiddah was also targeted Thursday, a man claiming allegiance to an anti-immigrant group was shot and killed by police in the southern French city of Avignon, and scattered confrontations were reported elsewhere, but it is unclear whether they were linked to the attack in Nice.
France's national police chief had already ordered increased security at churches and mosques earlier this week, but no police appeared to be guarding the Nice church when it was attacked, and Associated Press reporters saw no visible security forces at multiple prominent religious sites Thursday in Paris. French churches have been attacked by extremists in recent years, and Thursday's killings come ahead of the Roman Catholic All Saints' holiday.
Thursday's attacker was believed to be acting alone, and police are not searching for other assailants, said two police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named.
"He cried 'Allah Akbar!' over and over, even after he was injured," said Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, who confirmed a woman and a man died inside the church, while a second woman fled to a nearby bar but was mortally wounded. "The meaning of his gesture left no doubt."
Shots punctuated the air and witnesses screamed as police stationed at the grandiose doors to the church appeared to fire at the attacker inside, according to videos obtained by the Associated Press. For a time after the attack, explosions could be heard as sappers detonated suspicious objects.
It was the third attack since Charlie Hebdo republished the caricatures in September as the trial opened for the 2015 attacks at the paper's offices and a kosher supermarket. The gunmen in that attack claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, which both recently called anew for strikes against France.
A verdict is planned for Nov. 13, the fifth anniversary of another series of deadly Islamic State attacks in Paris.