A priest of a Greek Orthodox Church in the French City of Lyon has been brutally targeted in a terrorist attack.
The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, located on 45 Rue Père Chevrier, is a part of the Hellenic Community of Lyon founded in 1929.
The priest of the church is Nikolaos Kakavelakis, but it is not known at this time if he was the attacked priest.
The priest was shot twice and fighting for his life.
However, the terrorist that committed this attack is still large.
https://twitter.com/BBR4369/status/1322576382497619968
The priest was locking up his church when at around 4pm the terrorist attacked.
“The gunman shot the priest twice in the stomach and then ran away,” said an investigating source to The Daily Mail. “The victim was rushed to hospital with life threatening stomach wounds and is in intensive care.”
Unconfirmed reports that the assailant shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ while committing the shooting.
There are still no details of age or nationality of the terrorist.
Following the terrorist attack against the Orthodox priest, French President Emmanuel Macron said “I will never accept that we can justify violence. Our freedoms, our rights, I consider it our vocation to protect them.”
Je n'accepterai jamais qu'on puisse justifier la violence. Nos libertés, nos droits, je considère que c'est notre vocation de les protéger. pic.twitter.com/fP3Hvpkaql
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 31, 2020
This terrorist attack comes as on Wednesday evening, members of the ultranationalist Turkish group, the Gray Wolves, invaded the streets of Vienne to the south of Lyon.
These extremists marched to challenge the Armenian community. They did not hesitate to chant threats like “Where are the Armenians ?!”, “Here is Turkey” and “Fuck Armenia, we are going to fuck you.”
Non, mais regardez ce qui se passe à Décines. Des fascistes turcs sèment la terreur dans les quartiers arméniens. La France va très mal.https://t.co/LrPm7QD1L4
— Bahar Kimyongur (@BaharKimyongur) October 28, 2020
It is unknown if these two incidences are related but it does come as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to stoke Islamic extremism against France.