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Turkey joins chorus of condemnation of Nice murders

After three people were killed by a suspected Islamist extremist in France’s coastal city of Nice, Turkey's president took a break from his row with Paris to condemn the violence.

French coroners carry the second body of one of the three people killed at the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption Basilica in Nice, southern France, on October 29, 2020 after a knife-wielding man slitted the throat of at least one of the victims, in what officials are treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock the country. - The assailant, who was shot and wounded by police, was identified as Brahim Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant who arrived in Italy in late September and later travelled to France,
French coroners carry the body of one of three people killed at the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption Basilica in Nice, southern France, on Oct. 29, 2020, after a knife-wielding man slit the throat of at least one of the victims, in what officials are treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock the country. — VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey swiftly joined the wave of condemnations over the brutal murders of three people by a suspected Islamist extremist in France’s coastal city of Nice today, in the midst of an escalating row between Ankara and Paris over a broad range of issues spanning the Eastern Mediterranean and the role of Islam.

The assailant is said to have charged at the victims with a knife in the Notre-Dame Basilica in the heart of city on the French Riviera, shouting "Allahu Akhbar." Two of the victims were female, one a 70-year old who was “virtually beheaded” as she was praying, the BBC reported. The suspect, who has not yet been identified, was shot and detained soon after.

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