Saudi man arrested in Jeddah after attacking French consulate guard

In an attack that has come just hours after the knife attack in French city of Nice, a Saudi man attacked guard of French consulate in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with a "sharp tool". The attacker has been arrested. French Embassy has said that the consulate was at the receiving end of an ""attack by knife which targeted a guard". The guard has been taken to hospital and his life was not in danger

"The French embassy strongly condemns this attack against a diplomatic outpost which nothing could justify," an embassy statement said.

This attack has come on the same day of knife attack in Nice that left three dead. The attacker in Nice beheaded a woman. This knife attack is being treated as a terrorist act. The attacker was heard shouting "Allahu Akbar"

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Mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter the knife attack had happened in or near the city's Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker.

Also Read | France knife attack: French prosecutors say terror probe opened into the Nice attack

France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of a school teacher by a man of Chechen origin. The attacker had said he wanted to punish the teacher for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson.

Since Paty's killing, French officials have re-asserted the right to display the cartoons, and the images have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with the killed teacher.

That has prompted anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday condemned cartoons offending the Prophet Mohammad, but held back from echoing calls by other Muslim states for action against images being displayed in France of the Prophet.

(With Reuters inputs)