EU, Canada leaders express support to France

The European Union's top officials and the Canadian prime minister strongly condemned on Thursday the deadly knife attack in Nice and expressed support to France, a founding member of the 27-nation bloc.

EU Council President Charles Michel, who chairs the meetings of the EU's 27 leaders, expressed his solidarity with France, at the start of press conference following an EU-Canada meeting.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU's executive arm, said the whole of Europe stands behind France.

"We are united and determined in the face of fanaticism," she said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who participated to the EU-Canada video conference, also used the opportunity to condemn the attack in Nice.

EU leaders are expected to meet later Thursday during a video conference.

An attacker armed with a knife killed three people inside a church on Thursday in the southern French city of Nice.

It was the third attack in two months in France that authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher.

It comes during a growing furor over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were republished in recent months by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo — renewing vociferous debate in France and the Muslim world.