France raised its alert to the highest level nationally on Thursday after a knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in the city of Nice in the third apparent jihadist attack in just over a month. Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday's attack, in which at least one victim had their throat slit, was "as cowardly as it is barbaric" and told parliament he had decided to raise France's Vigipirate security alert system to the highest, "attack emergency" level. burs-mlr/dl