the priest was just closing up this
greek orthodox church late saturday
afternoon
when he was shot twice
police kept the area fenced off warning
the public to stay away
prosecutors have opened an investigation
into
attempted murder
at this stage we don't know what the
motive is behind the attack
no line of inquiry is preferred or ruled
out
so i won't comment on the target
what sort of attack this is we don't
know yet
residents express their shock i'm
appalled because it's very quiet
neighborhood a good place to live
you have markets the synagogue a little
further away the orthodox church
everyone knows each other it's a small
village it's traumatic
recently france has seen a string of
what the authorities describe
as terror-related incidents believed to
have been sparked by cartoons
depicting the prophet muhammad french
president emmanuel macron made his
position clear
i understand and respect the fact that
one might be shocked by these cartoons
i will never accept that one might
justify physical violence over these
cartoons
and in my country i will always defend
the freedom to speak to write
to think and to draw france is currently
on its highest
security alert let's go straight to
france now where dw correspondent marina
strauss is standing by marina
the suspect in this attack has now been
arrested what more can you tell us
a man has been arrested last
night after witnesses initial witnesses
of the attack
said that he might look like the
perpetrator
who attacked the orthodox priests
last on saturday
what we know is that the orthodox priest
was
severely injured he is still in a very
critical condition but he is
alive and also another interesting
fact came up an orthodox another
orthodox priest who actually knows
the person who was attacked told french
media that
the reason for the attack might be a
personal one because there has been a
fight
going on over years between a churchgoer
and this orthodox priest so this
actually
might be the reason but um prosecutors
say they're still looking in all all
directions so it's not clear yet what
the motive
of this attack is yeah as you say not
clear but it does come at a time
after a string of attacks in france how
people how worried are people in france
about these attacks
very worried i mean we we've been seeing
this attack
here in nice just on on thursday in the
church you can just
see behind me the the notre dame
basilica
here in in nice and we've been talking
to
many different people over the last
couple of days and
the reactions are a mix of anger and
grief
and a deep sadness and many churchgoers
told us
they are afraid now to go to the church
but they're also
angry and they want um police to better
protect
their church which is actually happening
at the moment like a look when you walk
through the streets in
in east or when you go anywhere close to
the church there are many policemen
standing
standing there we also went to a muslim
neighborhood yesterday and people
there told us they're very sad and
as well but they're also afraid that
this
incident will further stigmatize muslims
in france
all right marina thanks very much dw
correspondent marina strauss in nice
france