A knifeman shouted ‘we have to kill Macron’ as he stabbed a priest and a nun multiple times in an unprovoked attack in France this morning.
Father Krzysztof Rudzinski, 59, was stabbed 20 times with a 7cm knife before Sister Marie-Claude, 72, was cut in the hand as she reportedly snatched the knife from the attacker.
French police arrested a 31-year-old French man from Fréjus, southeastern France, after the attack at 10am in the Saint Pierre d’Arène church, Nice.
France began voting on Sunday in a presidential run-off election in a race between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right politician Marine Le Pen.
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, tweeted a picture from inside the church and said the attacker was a ‘disturbed’ Frenchman who may have planned the attack for ‘a few days’.
He said: ‘I was the first on the scene once I was alerted to the incident by my assistant and the local police.
‘Both local and national police were swiftly on the scene together to neutralize the disturbance.
‘The perpetrator was a disturbed man, who was born in Fréjus, who has no prior convictions and who took out several knives.
‘We have to ask if this was a premeditated attack because he had acquired a knife 7cm long a few days before the attack.
‘I want to thank the emergency services even though the priest is currently in the emergency care unit, he’s being well taken care of and we are in constant contact with him and despite everything he is doing well and is awake and alert.
‘The perpetrator was a disturbed man, who was born in Fréjus, who has no prior convictions and who took out several knives.
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A nun was also allegedly injured in the attack, which came as voting in the French election started today.
Mr Macron is in pole position to win re-election in the country’s presidential run-off on Sunday, although his lead over Ms Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who could decide to stay home.
A Macron victory in this vote would make him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.
All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a win for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist — yet the margin over his nationalist rival varies broadly, from six to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll.
Polls also forecast a possibly record-high number of people who will either cast a blank vote or not vote at all.
Polling stations opened at 8am local time on Sunday and close at 7pm in most places, apart from big cities that have chosen to keep stations open until 8pm.