France attack: Church sexton had throat slit while preparing for Mass

As he did every day, Vincent Loques, sexton of the Notre Dame church in the French city of Nice opened up the doors around 8:30am. There were few people around; the first Mass of the day was not due to start for another two hours.

But soon after he started work on Thursday morning, a Tunisian man armed with a knife entered the church and, over the course of 20 minutes, slit the 55-year-old sexton’s throat, beheaded a 60-year-old woman, and badly wounded a third woman who was 44, according to prosecutors.