France on Thursday condemned what it said were "declarations of violence" by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and raised the possibility of new sanctions against Ankara.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said his country is fighting "Islamist separatism, never Islam", responding to a Financial Times article that he claimed misquoted him and has since been removed from the newspaper's website.

The Tunisian assailant who killed three people at a church in France has tested positive for Covid-19, which could further delay his questioning, a source close to the inquiry said Tuesday.

More than 50,000 people took part Monday in the biggest demonstration yet in Bangladesh over French President Emmanuel Macron's defence of the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

French authorities were on Saturday seeking to ascertain if a young Tunisian suspected of killing three people in a knife rampage inside a Nice church had outside help as police arrested a third man who could have been associated with him.

A 47-year-old man believed to have been in contact with the suspected knifeman who killed three people at a church in the French city of Nice has been detained for questioning, a judicial source said Friday.

France headed into a second lockdown on Friday as the resurgent coronavirus pandemic hit new heights in the United States with a daily record of more than 90,000 cases, just five days before the presidential election.

A knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, slitting the throat of at least one of them, in what officials are treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock the country.

French schools will require all students aged six and over to wear face masks in class, Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday ahead of a new coronavirus lockdown starting at midnight.

Until now masks were mandatory only for students 11 and older, but Castex told lawmakers in parliament that new efforts were needed "to protect all our children, teachers and parents."

France was preparing to begin a new month-long national lockdown as Germany imposed drastic new curbs, with European leaders set to meet Thursday to discuss the explosive spikes in coronavirus infections on the continent.