Three people were killed in a knife attack outside a church in the southern French city of Nice, while several others were injured, police officials confirmed on Thursday.

A police source told AFP that the assailant was apprehended shortly after the attack around 9 am. The deceased includes a woman whose throat was slit. 

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“The situation is now under control,” police spokesperson Florence Gavello said. 

Taking to Twitter, Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said, “I can confirm everything suggests this was a terror attack in the Notre-Dame Basilica.”

The country’s anti-terror prosecutors have opened a murder inquiry.

Terming the assault an “Islamo-fascist attack”, Estrosi told reporters that the assailant “kept repeating ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greater) even while under medication”.

He also confirmed that President Emmanuel Macron will be arriving in the city shortly. 

France has been on high alert for terror attacks since the massacre at satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, the trail for the accomplices of which is currently ongoing in Paris. 

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Since 2015, a surge of Jihadist attacks in France, mostly by the so-called “lone wolf” attackers, has killed over 250 people. Nice, in particular, witnessed a gruesome incident during the Bastille Day fireworks on July 14, 2016, when a man rammed his truck into a crowded promenade, killing 86 people and injuring many more.

Thursday’s assault prompted a minute’s silence in the Parliament by lawmakers before Prime Minister Jean Castex and others left for an emergency meeting with President Macron. 

This comes in the wake of demonstrations across France as thousands stood in solidarity with a teacher who was beheaded for showing cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed. 

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The history teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed by an 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, who committed the crime outside Paty’s school in a Paris suburb. 

That incident has led Macron to denounce Islamic extremism, including closing mosques and shutting down organisations that have been accused of promoting violence and radicalism. 

However, his move has drawn criticism from and has flared tensions among France’s considerably large Muslim community, which is five to six million-strong and is the largest in Europe. 

A number of Muslim countries have also witnessed protests against France with many Arab nations in the Gulf boycotting French products.