We now know at least 3 people have been killed one of the victims a woman. Was beheaded. Says that it seems that one of those who was killed was the Church Warden more details still coming through the attack was quickly reasonably quickly after that after these attacks was detained by the police it seems he was shot and injured hes alive hes being treated in hospital for his injuries. Christiane there strozier he says its kept shouting allah akbar even during whilst he was being detained by the police so thats the latest details we have at the moment and also were told that president emmanuel mccrum is heading down to nice. Just burn it just give us a sense of how the situation is because this is not the 1st attack that france has seen in recent days is it not this does follow that attack in the north of the country where a teacher was beheaded and that led to a significant number of protests that are not. Yes this attack follows the murder of the teacher samuel a patsy he was killed as he walked home from school in a paris suburb and its understood that mr petit was targeted because hed given a class on secularism to students at his school he was a widely regarded and respected teacher and during in this class on secularism teaching children about the right to free speech hed shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons that many muslims find offensive this angered muslim parents it sparked a lot of anger on social media this got through to this 18 year old chap chen who was a permanent resident here in france and he travelled some 50 kilometers from where he lived in the days of followed the outrage. Of the complaints over samuel pepys class and he murdered samuel petit beheaded him on the street as he walked home from school but of course a very shocking and brutal murder shocked fronts. Teachers are sort of highly regarded in and respected in many ways it shocked france and it came off the back of the presence of france to explaining how he wanted to crackdown if you will on what hes sore as extreme islamic conservatism hed already been talking about this and in the wake of the murder of samuel patsy there was a broader crackdown on there were some arrests on people whod been on terror watch lists in france a mosque in the paris suburbs was closed for 6 months because the mosque. Had put on facebook on social media this video of a parent complaining about samuel patsey and the consequence of that particularly for example the closure of the. Mosque was that of course the the vast majority of muslims in france are. Not involved in any way and of interest in any tour in this sort of extremist activity but there were complaints that everybody was being blamed for the behavior of warm. One individual when this most was close there are a 1000 people that go to that mosque and theyre saying why are we all being punished because somebody here published a video so but the tension that has been created over. In the last weeks well certainly and thats just in the last week bernard but this does seem to be a recurring theme in fact that it has been for many years now and in france we have seen these tensions between extremists and then that brings the focus on to them and the Muslim Community on the whole in the stretches back of course to those attacks in the bats a can only do just tell us more about this inherent tension that we have between france and its. Population. Well as i say the vast not sure the vast majority of frances populous Muslim Population would would all feel a tension with the state but the problem that france the challenge that france has had is avert a government level it holds very dear its principles of secularism that divides the church from the state and this was introduced to get rid of the influence of the Catholic Church at the beginning of the last century and this is why france introduced this division of church and state in more recent years the challenge france has hard like other European Countries is to integrate into its society immigrant population and frances immigrant population is mainly muslim coming from former french colonies and everybody who goes to a French School is taught about the values of republican republican republicanism excuse me and and secularism and the french model of lacy to say is that you are expected to accept the french system no question this is how it is in france and you are expected to to accept that way of living slightly different from the more multicultural approach that you might have in in the United Kingdom for example so the strain has always been in this way france imposes its secularism a secularism on how some corners of france of france is Muslim Community feel under fire because they dont. Because of the religion they follow ok bernard its really going to stay with this for just a moment just for any of yours who are joining us here on aljazeera a quick reminder of that breaking news coming out of nice in the south of france as prosecutors. Accusers are saying that a terror investigation has been opened into this nice time the mayor. Has said that the person suspected of carrying out that knife attack is currently in hospice oh and we understand that 3 people have been killed in that knife attack in the city of nice Bernard Smith is in paris for us hes keeping across all of the detail for. You mentioned earlier that the french president emmanuel micro will be heading to nice this is certainly a terrible time for france because not only are they dealing with the coronavirus pandemic but night we have this appears to be in what the authorities are investigating as a terrorist incident there. Will come i expect to see from the government in the coming few hours baronets. Well weve had a minutes silence in the French NationalAssembly Earlier today it was meeting as it happens to discuss the new covert lockdown that begins essentially tomorrow in france on for begins on friday in france so already the nation preparing itself for that as a 2nd wave hits france as its hitting the rest of europe and its hitting it strongly and theres a lot of people in hospital increasing numbers of hospital admissions forcing the french president to go make an address to the nation last night explaining why this 2nd not 2nd locked down slightly modified from the version in spring was being put into place. So already there was that issue there have been in the last couple of weeks tensions between france and other Muslim Population muslim majority countries particularly with turkey now and other countries calling for a boycott of french products and French Companies because d of d emmanuel microns crackdown on elements of Frances Muslim society following the murder of samuel petit so those tensions were with there already tensions at an international. Level as i say with some muslim majority countries. In france itself. It was i would say after the murder of samuel patsy there was more shock. And anger than tension. But now with whats happened in nice this morning people i can imagine there will be increased tension that having said that of course because of coded most people will have it will be having to stay home anyway so most of the country confines of their homes only essential travel for shopping and exercise and if you have to go to work youre allowed outside your home ok. Burnet stay with us for just a moment you mentioned that minutes silence being called in the National Assembly world the president s of the National Assembly has addressed members of parliament calling on them to observe a minute of silence for the victims and for their families. The pull of their colleagues weve just found out is the Prime Minister was speaking that an extremely serious attack has taken place and nice and that according to fragmentary information that i have at least one person has been killed possibly more im talking in the conditional as i dont have more information whatever happens im asking you in these tragic circumstances to observe the minute silence in solidarity with the victim or victims and all of their loved ones. That was the president there of the French NationalAssembly Addressing the parliament which of course was in the middle of dealing with the coronavirus debates bernard we had the president of the National Assembly passing on his best wishes for the victims of those who were affected due to be know any more about the individuals who were killed or indeed the attacker. Its only all happening at the moment how it breaking in the last couple of hours we know very little about the attacker apart from the fact that he its a it was male hes still alive he was shot by police after the attacks and hes being treated in hospital for his injuries kept shouting allah akbar according to the manner of nice Christian Strozier and the mare also saying that one of the victims appears to have been the churchwarden and a female victim was beheaded we dont know the nature of the injuries to the other to the other victims except that there are several other people suffering knife wounds because the attack was armed with a knife. And so. The whole area around the church in and around nice now has been locked down not a damn church right in the heart of nice. And the police now of course. Identifying the attacker his connections is origins and again funds will be going through the authorities will be going through the process of trying to understand what provoked somebody to commit such a brutal attack that any ordinary person would find incomprehensible and horrifying how it does seem to be a particularly brutal and again this does have eccles with the attack on the teacher so youre paid see not that long ago the fact that we understand this from the mayor of the city. He said that one of the victims had been the head seeds the mayor also was talking. Of islamofascism and reason the point that. The attacker shouted far as he carried out that attack really drawing attention to the. The the fact that they were trying to bring islam in see this. It does seem to be something of a tension does that not right now bernard. Yes there is i mean 1st and foremost we have to concentrate remember that 3 people have been murdered in a church and of course that is the priority for the Police Investigation that is where peoples faucets are with the relatives of those victims and the people who have been injured as well who beating being treated in hospital this was a brutal and violent attack clearly and the Police Quickly were able to arrest the attacker but there will be questions on who he was if he was known about to before this is the challenge of police often have is if people are been on their radar for their activities or if theyve been highlighted by other people for things they said in the past things they posted on social media all these things will be investigated. The the concern for the many muslims in france perhaps around 10 percent of france is population around 7000000 people call themselves muslim is that they. Are all being tarred with the same brush all shouldering the blame for people who they will tell you are simply using their religion as an excuse to commit these brutal murders people who in islam cant find any reason why these sort of this brutality can in any way be justified or not is what the vast majority of frances Muslim Population will say because weve had to do these stories before unfortunately there is no justification in their minds for the brutality meted out towards some your patty the teacher who was beheaded for the brutality at the bats a clan or the Charlie Hebdo magazine or this latest attack inside a church in nice there will be no excuse for it will most of the. As muslims will tell you that of course but theyve. Been being blamed all my. Crackdowns because of what has happened in india and we also understand that this feeds into a Political Tension as well which is playing out in france of course there are. Leaders in france who will be looking to. Capitalize on this but we do understand the National Front in the pen has also. Weighed in on this and. Has certainly weighed in on the the tensions between the french secularism and the. Muslims who live in france the tension that exists there this is not something which has happened in the last couple of weeks paranoids there is very much those who who would wish to capitalize on this. Well before the murder of some your patsy front emanuel macron had been under pressure for not being tough enough on terrorism he faces a president ial election in 2022 when its possible again he will run off against Marine Le Pen from the far right National Front party so hes under pressure to. From the right to be seen to be to be cracking down he spoke before the murder before the murder of samuel patsey about what he called islamic separatism and there was a crackdown on nascent views islamic separatism as an attempt by some to impose conservative islamic beliefs that eclipse the traditional values of the French Republic macron and in his speech it should be said was also a pains to point out that is important that people are allowed to practice their religious beliefs without interference the emphasis was on what he called islamic separatism but not on muslims practicing their beliefs is what he is is what he said of course so now limits of his speech were picked up over other aspects of the speech however since then weve had the murder of samuel patsey and following his murder there was a broader crackdown again. There were arrests of people on frances. Terrorist watch lists there were threats to expel people already in jail for various offenses and this war mosque that was closed in paris for 6 months as an effective affectively as a punishment for the in mom whod published a facebook video on facebook of a parent criticizing the class that some real pity had given so in the wake of all of that and in the wake of the last couple of weeks of the international. Tension building again in some muslim countries where the some muslim majority countries where the bin calls to boycott french france and french products that has now it seems led now we have another attack today in nice and there will be more questions on 1st of all how Something Like this can be prevented. And be more broader look again frances. Secularism is its known and. Allowing people to freely. Their religion their religions ok Bernard Smyth fair keeping up to date on this from the french capital Paris Bennett thank you very much indeed lets get some more now on the story we can bring in and judy cherry on the phone shes the founder of the Security Risk consultancy terrorists. Good to have you with us here on aljazeera. My 1st question i guess is why would you say a city like nice has been the target in this instance. Well for the moment 1st of all we have to recall that we dont have to get the only information about the profile of. Ethical profile and we dont know exactly who did the motivations of that fact but it sure that the new season of course. The big city which has already unfortunately a story with. Terrorism because as you may. Remember that we had the 2000 the 16. Rugby at that in the. Fall that specific city but yet that could be that could have been such as i could have been. Cured in the another i mean there is just the the site which has been shown and here you see is because its a religious. Area so these things so that mean that we can analyze that as. An action of reaction against what. Some muscling them fellows have a maybe understood that they have been hurt by the kerry cat there and they want to twopenny shayna where the other religions for having. That on the region so that can expand the choice of the site. That has to beat. I mean thats pretty clear as there are. More investigation than. Who is the. 2 movie was leading there and so on and so on well that were quite bad but the reason i ask. Specifically nieces as you mentioned there was that truck attack on best today when. At least 90 people were killed. Im just curious as to whether you think there are any specific. Ethnic tensions in that city in the south of france which makes it more susceptible to these kind of attacks or are not. A the same thing from parish to you know if. Youre in paris. Its because paris is under. 15 so i mean maybe kind of content but we have to check if it really. Choice for. Specifically. More because the city has been around you heard well i mean ok. Youre right to point out that we do not know at this stage the motivation for the attack we dont know. Where were still waiting to find out if there is terrorism or not it is being investigated as a terrorist attack but from the details we do understand it does seem like it could be a copycat attack of some kind coming as it has a week after the murder of some your pets the fact that somebody was reportedly beheaded in this attack given this do you think this is surprising that the authorities were unprepared because we saw these copycat attacks after the. Attacks following Charlie Hebdo. We did see an element of copycat attacks people being held hostage and so on in the jewish supermarket. If thats not something that antiterrorism forces in france would be looking for 1st of all. We have received many are those the. She was. Regarding the possibility of similar are tied in france and not going in france also you know the french interest of roads. Led to the crims of. 1 1 embassies of forces of french words so that we receive such a lair. Dont forget that we have also a very special a national context. And. 1 we impact of. The really reaching of the charlie of those caricature but also due to the. President s position regarding the. Lets say the islam and Muslim Community and to. Fight against radical islam i