Topline
A Greek Orthodox priest was shot Saturday at a church in Lyon, France, by an unknown assailant who then fled the scene, according to police, with this latest attack sparking concerns it is related to killings that took place near a church in Nice on Thursday, which Nice’s mayor characterized as “terrorist attack”
French soldiers of the Sentinelle force patrol in front of the church of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, ... [+]
Key Facts
The priest was reportedly shot twice in the abdomen and is in a local hospital with life-threatening injuries
There was one gunman in the attack, who used a hunting rifle.
The priest, a Greek citizen, was closing the church, at around 4 p.m. local time at the time of the shooting.
Police blocked off the area around the church, and authorities said they locked down part of the city to search for the assailant.
The motive for the shooting is not yet known, but the attack comes just two days after a woman was decapitated and two other people were killed in a church in Nice, France.
Key Background:
The man arrested for the Nice killings, a 21-year-old Tunisian national named Brahim al-Aouissaoui is currently in custody. Police shot Aouissaoui before arresting him, and he is now in critical condition. He was carrying a Koran and the knife used in the killings when captured. Aouissaoui reportedly shouted, "Allahu Akbar" ("God is the greatest" in Arabic) during the attack. Two weeks earlier, Samuel Paty, a history teacher, was decapitated in a Paris suburb by 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoulakh Anzorov in what French President Emmanuel Macron denounced as an "Islamist terrorist attack." Paty had reportedly shown caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad to his students while discussing freedom of speech.
Critical Quote:
"No theory is favored, no theory is ruled out," Lyon Mayor Gregory Doucet told reporters Saturday. "We don't know at this stage the motive for this attack."
Further Reading:
Orthodox priest shot at church in France; attacker at large (AP)
