Macron: 'We Will Give In to Nothing'

At the site of the latest terrorist attack in France, President Emmanuel Macron insisted the nation will stand its ground. Three people were killed Thursday in knife attacks that began in a Catholic church in Nice. Police said the suspect, a 21-year-old Tunisian national, was shot by officers but survived. "If we have been attacked once again, it is because of our values, our taste for freedom; the freedom to believe freely and not give in to any terror," said Macron. "We will give in to nothing." The military will protect churches, especially Catholic ones, on Sunday, which is All Saints Day, a holy day on the church calendar. Troops will be stationed outside schools when students return Monday, the Guardian reports, and the force on the streets will be increased from 3,000 to 7,000. The nation's security alert was raised as high as it can go.

The mayor of Nice called for decisive action, per Reuters. "It's time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory," he said. The attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he was arrested, the mayor said. A teacher was slain in a knife attack outside his school earlier this month after showing Prophet Muhammad cartoons in class; the suspect said that was the reason he killed Samuel Paty. That prompted Macron to promise a crackdown on Islamist extremism, which sparked anger and protests from Muslims. Thursday was Muhammad's birthday. "My message is one of absolute firmness and unity. There is only one community in France, the national community," Marcron said Thursday. "All of you, whatever your religion, whether you believe or not, must unite and not give in to a spirit of division." (More France stories.)