President
Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pledged “France will not give up” its values as a
knife attack, in apparent retaliation against the country’s defence of cartoons
on the Prophet Mohammed, outside a church in Nice claimed the lives of three
people.

A
21-year-old Tunisian immigrant identified as Brahim Aoussaoui slit the throat
of a woman, in an apparent beheading attempt, outside the Basilica Notre-Dame
in the southern city and stabbed two others to death in an incident that has
shocked the world, AFP reported.

Macron
arrived in the city earlier in the day and condemned the incident as an “Islamist
terrorist attack” while offering condolences to the deceased and urging people
of all religions to not “give in to the spirit of division”.

The
assailant was later shot and wounded by police. The body of the woman with the
slit throat was found inside the cathedral, along with the body of a church employee,
while another woman succumbed to her injuries in a nearby bar.

A number of
nations have condemned the attack and have expressed their solidarity with France,
with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres terming it as “heinous”.

“He extends
his condolences to the families of the victims and reaffirms the solidarity of
the United Nations with the people and the Government of France,” spokesperson Stephane
Dujarric said.

Meanwhile,
Saudi Arabia, where a citizen wounded a security official outside the French
consulate in the city of Jeddah earlier today, also “strongly condemned” the incident.

Also Read: PM Narendra Modi condemns knife attack in France’s Nice

“We
reiterate the kingdom’s categorical rejection of such extremist acts that are
inconsistent with all religions, human beliefs and common sense, and we affirm
the importance of rejecting practices that generate hatred, violence and
extremism,” the Saudi foreign ministry tweeted.

Saudi has
been among a number of Arab nations to decry Macron’s defence of the
caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which were displayed by history
teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris school and ultimately led to his killing.

Macron has
condemned the acts of violence, the Nice attack becomes the third such ‘Jihadist’
attack in just over a month, and has defended the right to mock religions, which
has not gone down well with the Muslim community in France and abroad.