France on Thursday reiterated that it would not give in to any act of terrorism after the country saw another beheading incident in the city of Nice.
According to a report by US News, a Tunisian man shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two others inside a church in the said city. Police shot the killer shortly after the incident.
According to chief anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, the suspect, identified as Brahim Aouissaoui, arrived on September 20 in Europe on Lampedusa, the Italian island off Tunisia that is the main receiving point for refugees from Africa.
Ricard told a news briefing that the killer entered the city by train and made his way to the church where he beheaded a 60-year-old woman and stabbed a 55-year-old sexton.
He also stabbed to death a 44-year-old woman, who managed to flee to a nearby café to inform of the incident before dying.
“On the attacker, we found a Koran and two telephones, the knife of the crime – 30cm with a cutting edge of 17cm. We also found a bag left by the attacker. Next to this bag were two knives that were not used in the attack,” said Ricard.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in his speech outside the church that the country was being attacked for its values, and “for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief.”
“And I say it with great clarity again today: We will not give any ground,” he was quoted as saying.
The attack came just under two weeks after a school teacher was beheaded by an 18-year-old attacker in the suburb of Paris for showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad while in class, an act considered blasphemous by the Muslim community.
The killer was subsequently shot dead by authorities.
It can be learned that following Macron’s statement that France “will not give in, ever,” French products being sold in some Arabic countries were stripped from grocery stores to protest against the president.
Photo from Flickr
