The facts occurred around 10 a.m. this Sunday morning, just before mass, in the Saint-Pierre d’Arène church, rue de la Buffa, in Nice. An individual entered the building before attacking a priest with a knife, announced the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. A sister, also present, was also injured when she tried to intervene. Their days are not in danger.
Born in 1991 in Fréjus, the aggressor, “who is not on file”, would be unbalanced, declared the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes. The man made several stays in a psychiatric hospital, thus specified Bernard Gonzalez. The Nice prosecutor’s office is seized “and will communicate as soon as possible”, indicated to 20 Minutes the public prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme. The PJ is in charge of the investigation.
No vital prognosis involved
The assailant would have stabbed the monk several times, Father Christophe according to the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi. He would be “wounded in the leg and shoulder” according to a witness to the scene who tells on Facebook “being in the church with some of the shocked faithful”. The assailant also injured Sister Marie-Claude. The latter would have “snatched the knife from him while being injured in the forearm”, tweeted the deputy LR of the Alpes-Maritimes Eric Ciotti. Another person also allegedly tried to disarm him without being injured.
While the suspect was arrested by the police, the two victims were taken care of by the firefighters. They were transported, conscious, to the hospital. Their vital prognosis is not engaged, we learned from concordant sources.
“Solidarity with the parishioners and thank you to the police who quickly arrested the author. The Prefect is on site, ”also tweeted Gérald Darmanin.