BRASILIA, Oct 30, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – One of the three victims of an extremist
knife attack in a church in France Thursday was a 44-year-old Brazilian
mother of three, the Brazil foreign ministry announced.
The woman was seriously wounded in the attack on the Notre-Dame Basilica in
Nice, in the southeast of France, by a 21-year-old Tunisian immigrant who had
recently arrived in the country.
She managed to flee to a nearby bar, but died shortly after, police sources
have said.
“Tell my children I love them,” she managed to say before her death,
according to a report by French cable channel BFM TV.
“The Brazilian government regretfully announces that one of the fatalities
was a 44-year-old Brazilian mother of three children, living in France,” a
statement from the foreign ministry said.
It did not confirm whether she also had French nationality.
In a near half-hour frenzy in the Notre-Dame basilica in the center of
Nice, on the Mediterranean coast, the assailant used a knife of 30
centimeters (12 inches) to cut the throat of a 60-year-old woman so deep that
he practically beheaded her, French authorities have said.
The body of a man, a 55-year-old church employee, was found nearby inside
the basilica, his throat also slit.
The Brazilian woman, the third victim, died of multiple knife wounds.
The assailant was shot and wounded by police. French President Emmanuel
Macron has called the killings an “Islamist terror attack.”
“President Jair Bolsonaro, on behalf of the entire Brazilian nation,
presents his deepest condolences to the family and friends of the citizen
murdered in Nice, as well as to the other victims, and extends his solidarity
to the people and the French Government,” the statement continued.
The Brazilian government also expressed “its firm repudiation of any form
of terrorism” and expressed “especially its solidarity with Christians and
people of other faiths who suffer persecution and violence because of their
beliefs.”