People pay tribute to victims of knife attack outside Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, France, Oct. 30, 2020. France's vigilance against terrorism is raised to the highest level of "attack emergency" throughout the national territory following the knife attack in Nice, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday. Early Thursday morning, a knife attacker stabbed to death three people at Notre-Dame basilica in central Nice. The alleged perpetrator has shot by police and transferred to hospital.Photo:Xinhua

European leaders on Tuesday mooted tightening the EU's external borders, as they vowed joint action following a spate of attacks on home soil blamed on Islamist radicals.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who called a summit after deadly recent acts of terror in France and Austria, called for a "rapid and coordinated" response and denounced what he described as the "misuse" of Europe's asylum provisions by people seeking entry for sinister reasons.

"In all of our countries we are witnessing a misuse of the right to asylum" by traffickers, criminal gangs, or people from countries "which are not at war," the French leader told journalists after the video conference.

The meeting was called after four people were killed in a shooting rampage by a dual Austrian-North Macedonian national in the heart of Vienna last week.

A Chechen radical Islamist with asylum status beheaded a history teacher outside Paris in October, and a Tunisian who came to France on a migrant boat then killed three people at a church in Nice.

The crimes prompted a debate about entry control.

And as European leaders vowed Tuesday to protect the Schengen zone of visa-free travel between member countries, they also talked about strengthening the common zone's borders with the outside.

"You can, only can preserve it [Schengen] if we urgently, urgently focus on the external borders," said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a statement.

The Netherlands, he said, supported strengthening Frontex - the agency tasked with helping EU countries and the Schengen members manage their external borders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for her part, agreed that it was "urgent and crucial for us to know who enters and who leaves" the Schengen area.

Meeting host Macron called for better data exchanges between EU countries "because any security gap on the external border or inside member states is a security risk for all the member states."

Last week, he announced a doubling of the number of French border guards, and called for a "deep" revision in the Schengen area rules.

Also present at Tuesday's meeting were Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, European Council chief Charles Michel and EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, who also underscored the "protection of external borders" as a priority.

Kurz said the danger of an attack "is with us permanently."

Stressing there was no conflict between Islam and Christianity, Merkel said there was, however, a strong need "for a model of democratic society to combat terrorist and undemocratic behavior" in Europe.

AFP