French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Nice later today.
LONDON -- Three people are dead after a series of stabbings in a "suspected terror attack" that occurred at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice, France, at 9 a.m. local time on Thursday morning, ABC News can confirm.
"Thank you to our municipal police officers who arrested the author of a stabbing attack in the Notre Dame sector at #Nice06," the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said in a tweet. "I ask the people of Nice to avoid the area to let the police and emergency services work."
The suspect was arrested after the attack, according to the Associated Press, and taken to a nearby hospital after being injured during the arrest. Authorities say he was believed to have been acting alone.
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Nice later today as France's Interior Minister says he has opened a "crisis cell following the events."
A bomb disposal unit is also responding to the crime scene and heavily armed anti-terror police are currently patrolling the streets of Nice and around the cathedral, which is the largest church in the city.
Several people are also reported to be injured but it is unclear how many and what the extent of their injuries might be.
France's anti-terror prosecutor's office is now taking on the case and opening an investigation on "counts of assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise", attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise and "terrorist association of criminals."
Mayor Christian Estrosi said there were three victims, including two inside of the church.
"Nice has paid too much of a price, like our country in recent years," Estrosi said in a tweet. "I call on the unity of Nice inhabitants."
The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of French middle school teacher Samuel Paty.
The attacker who killed Paty had said he wanted to punish him for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson.
It also comes amid mass protests in many Islamic countries against Emmanuel Macron after the French President spoke up in defense of the cartoons.
ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.
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