PARIS — A Greek Orthodox priest was shot and wounded Saturday in the central French city of Lyon, but the motive was unclear, local authorities said. The shooting comes at a time of heightened tensions in France, which is still on edge after a pair of recent attacks by Islamist extremists, the killing of three churchgoers in the southern city of Nice on Thursday and the beheading near Paris two weeks ago of a schoolteacher who had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a civics class. In Lyon, around 4 p.m. on Saturday, local residents and a police patrol heard two gunshots near a Greek Orthodox church in the 7th arrondissement of the city, the Lyon prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Police officers saw a man fleeing the scene and found a priest with gunshot wounds near the church’s back door, the statement said. French media reported that the attacker used a sawed-off shotgun.

Source: New York Times October 31, 2020 17:02 UTC