[WATCH] Three people killed, one beheaded, in church terrorist attack in Nice

Updated at 12:30 pm with Avignon attack

Three people have been killed in a knife attack in the French city of Nice, French police said.

Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said everything pointed to a "terrorist attack at the heart of the Notre-Dame basilica".

Police said one woman had been beheaded. The attack happened at 9am inside the Notre-Dame basilica in the city centre.

The attacker was shot and injured by the police and taken to hospital.

Estrosi said the attacker had reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” multiple times.

The interior minister appealed to people to avoid the area in the centre of the French Riviera city. Gérald Darmanin said he was convening a crisis meeting at the ministry in Paris.

Last week, Samuel Paty, a French middle-school teacher, was murdered in a Paris suburb, by an 18-year-old Muslim refugee of Chechen descent, and then beheaded.

The attacker was shot and killed by police minutes later and the motive for the murder was that Paty had, in a class on freedom of expression, shown his students Charlie Hebdo cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, including one cartoon which depicted Muhammad naked.

Avignon attacker fatally shot by police

In a separate incident, an attacker was fatally shot by police after threating to stab people in Avignon, France.

The suspect, who was reportedly holding a knife and shouting “Allahu Akbar”, did not manage to kill or injury anyone.

More details are yet to emerge on the second incident.