Priest shot outside French church; suspect arrested
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Police officers examining the entrance of the church in Lyon where the shooting took place last Saturday. The victim, a Greek Orthodox priest, was wounded in the chest at point-blank range, according to sources close to the inquiry.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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LYON • An attacker armed with a sawn-off shotgun seriously wounded a Greek Orthodox priest in a shooting outside a church in the French city of Lyon last Saturday, with the country still reeling from a deadly church attack just days earlier.
Mr Nikolaos Kakavelaki, 52, is now in a serious condition in hospital, a police source said.
The attacker fled the scene but Lyon's public prosecutor later said a suspect had been arrested.
"A person who could correspond to the description given by the initial witnesses has been placed in policy custody," prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet said.
The Lyon prosecutor's office said witnesses heard gunshots, then "saw an individual fleeing and discovered a man with gunshot wounds at the back door of the church".
The priest was shot twice in the chest at point-blank range, according to sources close to the inquiry.
The motive was not clear.
It comes at a time when France is already on edge after the killing of three people in a church in Nice last Thursday and the beheading last month of a teacher who had shown his class a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad.
In the church attack in Nice, a 21-year-old Tunisian suspect was shot by police and is now in critical condition after the knife rampage that left three people dead.
Two more men were arrested last Saturday in connection with the attack, bringing the number of people in custody to six as investigators trace the suspect's contacts.
Meanwhile, the primary suspect in the trial over the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre tested positive for Covid-19 and the court has been suspended until Wednesday.
Ali Riza Polat, 35, is accused of having helped the killers of 12 people in the attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, a female police officer a day later and four hostages at a Jewish supermarket.
He faces life in jail if convicted.
Polat vomited and was seen by a doctor, prompting the judge to suspend the court. The 10 accused accomplices must now be tested and the resumption of the trial will depend on the test results.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
