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.