PARIS
A man has attacked three soldiers on guard outside a department store housing a Jewish community centre in Nice, southeastern France, French media has reported.
Police arrested the man after the attack in a Galeries Lafayette department building, in which one of the soldiers was seriously injured in the face and rushed to hospital.
Police named the suspect as Moussa Coulibaly, but said he had no connection with Ahmedy Coulibaly who carried out an attack on a Jewish supermarket and shot dead a French policewoman in Paris last month.
In a Twitter message, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, praised police, tram workers and passersby for their "courage" that "allowed the arrest of the attacker."
He also called for a greater military presence in the city.
Knifeman who attacked French troops 'expelled from Turkey'
Security sources told French news agency AFP that suspect Moussa Coulibaly -- who had no connection with Ahmedy Coulibaly who carried out the attack on a Jewish supermarket and shot dead a French policewoman in Paris last month -- had arrived in France from Turkey.
The source told AFP the man had been interrogated by French intelligence services upon entering France.
Police arrested Coulibaly after the attack in a Galeries Lafayette department building earlier in Nice, southeastern France, in which one of the soldiers was seriously injured in the face and rushed to hospital.
In a Twitter message, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, praised police, tram workers and passersby for their "courage" that "allowed the arrest of the attacker."
He also called for a greater military presence in the city.
Earlier on Tuesday, anti-terror police arrested seven men and a woman suspected of being involved in recruiting French nationals to fight in Syria and Iraq.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said those arrested in the Paris and Lyon areas were not suspected of having links to the Jan. 7 attacks on the Paris headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which 12 people died.
