FATHER SLAIN
Dad-of-two, 54, named as Vincent Loquès killed in bloody jihadi rampage that saw three killed & woman beheaded in Nice
DAD-OF-TWO Vincent Loquès has been named as the first victim of a suspected terror attack in the city of Nice that left three people dead and a woman beheaded.
Tributes have flooded in to remember the "sympathetic" caretaker of the Notre-Dame basilica - which was attacked this morning by the terrorist, named as Brahim Aoussaoui.
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Loquès was the building's 54-year-old sacristan, an officer charged with taking care of the church.
Parishioners paid tribute to him as a man who loved his church, saying "he helped, he served, he gave", reports .
He was said to be preparing the church for Sunday's upcoming All Saint's Day when he was attacked by the knifeman, sparking a swoop by armed police who shot and wounded the suspect at around 9am local time.
France's state prosecutor said tonight that the killer used a 12-inch knife to slaughter three church-goers and is in hospital with serious injuries after being shot by cops.
He was not known to the security services and arrived in Paris from Italy on October 9 after arriving at the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 20.
Le Parisien reports that Mr Loques had been a church warden for ten years, and members of the parish said he was “expansive and sympathetic”.
Local politician Eric Ciotti this evening tweeted a picture of Mr Loques smiling, and paid tribute to the “devoted employee” of the cathedral.
Mr Ciotti wrote: "Thoughts for Vincent Loquès, sacristan of the Basilica of Notre Dame de Nice cowardly murdered by an Islamist terrorist.
"He was extremely devoted to his church, I think of his family, his loved ones and the entire Catholic community."
Police sources have since named the suspect as Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian who had arrived in Europe just weeks ago.
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The suspect changed his clothes after arriving in Nice by train before arriving at the church at 8.29am before butchering the three church-goers over half an hour.
France's state prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said tonight that the body of a second victim, a 60-year-old woman, was found strangled and decapitated in the church.
A third victim, a 44-year-old woman, fled from the church at 8.54am but died in a cafe nearby from her wounds.
She reportedly said to the emergency services: "Tell my children that I love them."
A team of four local police officers stormed the church through a side entrance and shot him as the terrorist yelled "Allahu akbar".
The attacker was taken to hospital with serious wounds and underwent an operation.
Anti-terrorist police have launched an investigation into the bloody rampage.
It came on a day of chaos in France as another suspect, reported to part of a far-right group, was shot dead by cops in the city of Avignon after allegedly making a Nazi salute and waving a handgun at passersby.
Police in the French city confirmed that the suspect was part of the Identarian Movement - a notoriously Islamophobic and anti-Muslim group with members all over Europe.
A police spokesman said the attack had "nothing to do with Islam" and was wearing a T-shirt bearing the movement's name.
It was initially reported by French media this morning that a man had shouted “Allahu Akbar”, before he was killed - though this was refuted by local police.
Meanwhile, another suspect reported to be carrying a knife was arrested in a Paris suburb after telling his family he wanted to 'copy the attack' in Nice, Le Parisien reported.
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Responding to the wave of violence, the French President vowed to deploy 7,000 troops to the streets of France to protect churches - as he claimed the country was "under attack".
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Macron denounced the Nice bloodbath as an "Islamic terror attack" and defiantly said the nation would not "give up on our values".
France has now raised its alert status to the highest possible level of "terror attack emergency".
French President Emmanuel Macron says 'France is under attack' after Nice and Avignon knife rampages