France: Suspicious package found inside St Martin Church day after heinous attack in Nice

Just a day after the gruesome stabbing inside a Nice church, a suspicious package been found inside St martin Church in Metz, said the French Police on October 30. In the wake of the incident, a security parameter has been established around the unattended package inside the church and the vehicular movement has been restricted in the unrest-stricken nation with heightened security.

Even though more information is currently awaited, the discovery of the package comes after a knife attack was reported inside a cathedral in Nice killing three people amid the anger of Muslim majority nations over French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks on extremism and defending Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures. 

The unrest in France roots from the October 16 ‘terror attack’ when an 18-year-old beheaded French history teacher for showing Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures to his pupils. The attack on teacher near Paris was followed by Macron repeatedly condemning Islam extremism and pledging to eradicate ‘terror’ from the European nation. However, the French President’s decision of blaming it on a single religion has further angered Muslim majority states and triggered protests denouncing Macron along with calls for boycotting French goods. France is currently on high alert, France's Interior Minister on Friday warned about the possibility of more such attacks.

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France church attack: 3 killed

Amid the uproar when France was already fearing deadly attacks, an armed man with a 12-inch-long knife began stabbing people praying inside the Basilica of Notre-Dam in Nice at  8.29 AM  (local time) on October 29. 

The man reportedly slit the throat of a 60-year-old woman, a church worker and also left a woman severely injured. While the 60-year-old woman and the church worker reportedly died on the spot, the other 44-year-old woman managed to get out of the church. However, she died later succumbed to her wounds in the nearby cafe.  This gruesome attack which is now being treated as a terror attack by prosecutors came in the backdrop of thousands rallying across France in solidarity with the teacher Samuel Paty.

However, it is unclear if the October 29 Nice attack is connected to the Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons that Muslims consider blasphemous. Leaders across the globe including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have condemned the attack. But security across the nation has been tightened and the police have arrested the attacker Ibrahim Issaoui who was seriously injured and is currently hospitalised in life-threatening condition.

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Image: @prefpolice/Twitter