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Another suspect was arrested after the allegedly Islamist-motivated attack in Nice, which left three dead. The 35-year-old man was taken into police custody for alleged connections to the alleged attacker, he said Friday night from judicial circles. The France Info station had previously reported on the arrest. Therefore, the 35-year-old man is accused of having been in contact with the attacker the day before the attack.
On Friday morning, investigators announced the arrest of a 47-year-old man who was also suspected of having been in contact with the attacker shortly before the crime.
Counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said Thursday night that investigators want to know if the attacker was supported by accomplices. They also want to know more precisely how the man said to have come from Tunisia got to the south of France.
A knife attack in the southern French coastal city of Nice resulted in three deaths Thursday: two women and the church supervisor. According to police circles, an old woman had her throat cut with a kitchen knife in the church and the attacker tried to behead her. It was similar with the sacristan. The act occurred around 9 am in the morning.
The woman and the church superintendent were murdered at Notre-Dame Cathedral in the center of the city. The second woman died at a fast food restaurant near the church after fleeing there, seriously injured, according to media reports.
What is known about the course of events and the perpetrator as of Friday morning:
- According to media reports, the perpetrator is said to be a 21-year-old named Brahim Aouissaoui. He is a Tunisian citizen and arrived in Europe on September 20 via the Italian island of Lampedusa. Then he came to France.
- He arrived at the Nice train station on Thursday morning and changed there. From the train station he headed for the cathedral.
- He was not known to the police and had not applied for asylum in France. The Italian authorities had asked him to leave the country for Lampedusa.
- The killer yelled “Allahu Akbar” several times as he left the church. The perpetrator acted alone.
- The attacker was shot twice by the police and taken to hospital with serious injuries. Before that, he tried to knock him out with a taser gun. His condition remains critical on Friday morning. Four officers who were near the church identified the perpetrator. You are in psychological care.
There is also a high risk of cheating in Germany
Emmanuel Macron arrived at the church in Nice early Thursday afternoon. He spoke of “all of France being attacked”. The country had declared the highest level of terror alert at noon. 4,000 more soldiers than before are there to guarantee security in the country and, among other things, guard the churches. 3000 have been used so far.
There were also incidents in Lyon and Avignon on Thursday. In Avignon, the police shot at the man holding a gun or knife and threatened passersby. An Afghan was arrested in Lyon who was traveling with a knife. Security circles classify the incident as “serious” according to “Nice-matin”. According to several unanimous press reports, the Avignon act could have a far-right background. Consequently, the attacker is said to be an identity.
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An employee of the French embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, attacked with a knife. They took him to the hospital, but his life is not in danger.
German security circles say the “modus operandi” of the Nice attack speaks “clearly in favor of an act of Islamist terrorism.” There is probably a connection to the very emotional debate over the Muhammad cartoons in France.
[Mehr zum Thema: Frankreich nach dem Attentat von Nizza – ein Land im Ausnahmezustand]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s violent attacks on French President Emmanuel Macron because of his stance on the cartoons continued to heat up fanatic Muslims, he said. Turkey strongly condemned the act in Nice.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) said she was “deeply shocked by the cruel killings in a church” in Nice. “My thoughts are with the families of those killed and wounded,” Merkel said, according to her spokeswoman Steffen Seibert in Berlin on Thursday. “The French nation was in solidarity with Germany in these difficult hours,” added the chancellor.
“Act of resonance” after the attempted assassination of teacher Samuel Paty
The attack in Nice is apparently a “response” after the attack on teacher Samuel Paty. On October 16, the Russian-Chechen Islamist Abdullah Anzorov beheaded Paty in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine because the teacher had discussed the Muhammad cartoons in class on the subject of freedom of expression.
Anzorov, who was shot by police, is celebrated as a martyr on the Internet, security circles said. In English, Arabic, Urdu and other languages, people are encouraged to mimic the attack.
The danger of a similar attack in Germany as in Paty and now in Nice is high. “Even if there was quiet in Germany for a time, the Islamist terrorist threat always remained high,” one expert told Tagesspiegel. That was proved by the attack in Dresden. There, on October 4, Syrian Abdullah Al HH stabbed a tourist and seriously wounded another.
“Nice” was also a model for Berlin attacker Anis Amri
The high counterfeit risk for Germany is justified by security circles with the “Nice” encryption. The attack by an Islamist in July 2016 with a truck in Nice was repeated five months later in Berlin.
In December, Tunisian Anis Amri drove a hijacked truck to the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, killing twelve people and injuring more than 70.
In July, Tunisian Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a truck along the Nice seafront. The ISIS terrorist militia sympathizer killed 86 people and injured more than 400.
Even now, after the knife attack, “Nice” could encourage radicalized Muslims in Germany to carry out a similar attack, it is said.
“The potential of the Islamic side is uninterrupted,” says one expert. The combination of the “nice” model, anger at the Muhammad cartoons and the simple modus operandi of a knife attack is very dangerous.
Protection of the Constitution considers 2,000 Islamists as potential terrorists
In Germany, police currently classify 619 Islamists as threats and therefore potential terrorists, security circles said. Another 500 Islamists are considered “relevant people”, they are potential supporters of violent criminals.
The full potential of the Islamist-terrorist person is even greater, he said. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution assumes 2000 people. The intelligence service is numbered higher than the police because it not only has its sights set on criminals, but also on dangerous people on an extremist spectrum as a whole.
The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, meanwhile, called for unity. “We have a duty to unite against violence and against those who want to incite and spread hatred,” the Italian wrote on Twitter Thursday. He was shocked and saddened by the news from Nice. “We all feel this pain in Europe.” (With dpa, Reuters)
Note: this text is continually updated with new information.
