NICE, FRANCE: A knifeman has killed three people and injured several others in an attack inside the Notre-Dame Basilica, with police describing the scene as a “vision of horror”, as one of the victims was reportedly beheaded.

The attacker was shot and injured in the subsequent police encounter, and was taken to the hospital; with the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi adding that the attacker repeated “Allahu Akbar” several times before being restrained by police officers at the scene. The motive for the attack has yet to be established, or if there was any connection to any previous incidents.

In a statement, Mayor Estrosi mentioned that “We have two people killed inside the church, and a third person whose life is in danger who was in a bar facing the church where she had taken refuge. Enough is enough; we have to remove this Islamo-fascism from our territory.”

President Emmanuel Macron has taken note of the situation, and is heading to Nice.

This attack comes less than two weeks after the gruesome beheading of a high school history teacher Samuel Paty, after he allegedly showed his class a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad, during a discussion on free speech. After the incident, President Macron has repeatedly stated that France was engaged in “an existential battle” against Islamic fundamentalism.

Macron’s comments have sparked a widespread response from the international Muslim community, with calls for a boycott of French goods across the Muslim world.