France knife attack: French prosecutors say terror probe opened into the Nice attack

A French prosecutor opened an investigation into a terrorist attack on Thursday after three killed at a church in the French city of Nice.

A woman was beheaded by an attacker with a knife who also killed two other people, police said, in an incident the city's mayor described as terrorism.

Also read | 'Those scoundrels': Erdogan vows 'all legal and diplomatic' action against Charlie Hebdo amid anti-Macron wave

Police secure a street near a church. 

Mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter the knife attack had happened in or near the city's Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker.

Also read | French president's support for Prophet cartoons 'stupid act': Iran's supreme leader

Police said three people were confirmed to have died in the attack and several were injured.

A police source said a woman was decapitated. French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a decapitation having occurred in the attack.

The French anti-terrorism prosecutor's department said it had been asked to investigate the attack.

The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of French middle school teacher Samuel Paty in Paris by a man of Chechen origin.

The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson.

It was not immediately clear what the motive was for the Nice attack, or if there was any connection to the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.

(With inputs from agencies)