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PARIS. — French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to protect schools and places of worship by more than doubling the number of soldiers deployed to protect against attacks, after two women and a man were killed at a church in the city of Nice yesterday.

Speaking from the scene of the attack, Nice’s Notre Dame basilica, Macron said France had been attacked “over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief”.

“We will not give any ground,” he added defiantly.

Macron’s announcement to increase deployments from around 3 000 troops to 7 000 came hours after the suspected terror attack left the European country reeling.

A man armed with a knife attacked people inside the church around 9am local time, killing a woman and a man, French police confirmed to NBC News. A third victim, another woman, ran from the church seeking refuge in a café but was hunted down and killed, police added. Several others have been wounded, and the suspect was shot by police and is being treated in hospital, the police said.

France’s prime minister Jean Castex also said yesterday the country had raised its security alert status to the highest level — NBC.