France Terror Attack: 3 Killed As Woman Beheaded In Nice Near Notre-Dame Basilica, Macron Government Raises Threat Level To Highest

A knife-wielding attacker shouting "Allahu Akbar" beheaded a woman and killed two other people in the French city of Nice. The suspected terrorist incident took place on October 29, police said. Nice's mayor, Christian Estrosi, who described the attack as terrorism, said on Twitter it had happened in or near the city's Notre Dame church. Estrosi said the attacker had repeatedly shouted the phrase "Allahu Akbar", or God is greatest, even after he had been detained by police. In Paris, lawmakers in the National Assembly observed a minute's silence in solidarity with the victims. Police said three people were confirmed to have died in the attack and several were injured. The French anti-terrorist prosecutor's department said it had been asked to investigate. A police source told Reuters that a woman was decapitated. Estrosi said the victims had been killed in a "horrible way". The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of middle school teacher Samuel Paty by a man of Chechen origin. The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson. Meanwhile, France has raised the security alert for French territory to the highest level after the knife attack, Prime Minister Jean Castex said. Castex also told French National Assembly that the government’s response to the attack would be firm and implacable. French President, Emmanuel Macron, who visited the scene, said he would be stepping up the deployment of soldiers to protect key sites, such as places of worship & schools.