French churches honour three victims killed in Nice knife attack

France’s churches held ceremonies on Sunday praising the three people shot in a terror strike at the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice.

Nice Archbishop Andre Marceau made a unique nighttime setting in the basilica following the knife crime on Thursday. The service will pay tribute to the victims.

Other churches involved Saint Sulpice in Paris discussed the attack during services for All Saints’ Day, a day where Christians honour the dead.

The church ceremonies went ahead, some with more security, despite a second national lockdown due to rising COVID-19 cases in the country.

The knife crime on Thursday moved the country to a high terrorism alert and comes following a beheading of a teacher in Paris and driving outside the offices of Charlie Hebdo last month.

Investigators are still unclear about the motive of suspect Ibrahim Issaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian invaded France through Italy last month. He is in severe condition in a French hospital after being injured by police.

Five others are in custody after being arrested near Nice in connection with the investigation.

Authorities said the church killing was an act of terrorism. It took place amid anxieties over the republication of cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on Saturday that he assumed the cartoons were offensive but that he defended freedom of feeling and secular values.

Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators in Pakistan burned effigies of the French leader as anti-France protests continued in several countries.

The incidents in France and the government’s response has sparked questioning of the country’s stance on secularism and immunity of a Muslim minority in the country.