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French police confirm that a 21-year-old Tunisian was shot and arrested following the knife attacks in a Nice church on Thursday. He is seriously injured but alive.
Two phones and a Koran were found in the suspect’s apartment, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.
It is said that he arrived in the country via Italy at the end of September and then moved to France.
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Seriously injured
Four police officers confronted the alleged perpetrator in church. Then he must have approached the police and shouted “Allahu akbar,” says prosecutor Ricard.
Then the police shot the man.
– He’s still seriously wounded, the anti-terrorist actor said Thursday night.
According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, 14 bullet casings were found on the ground.
The anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Ricard says that the alleged perpetrator must have arrived in Nice through the train station.
Surveillance cameras have detected that he entered the Nice train station at 06.47, where he changed his clothes. He left the station again at 08.13.
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From there he walked 400 meters to the church. Half an hour later, a woman fled to the left side of the church, the prosecutor claims.
He was apprehended with a bag containing two more knives, in addition to the one said to have been used in the attack.
BASILICA: The police are investigating the Nice church. Photo: VALERY HACHE / AFP
To France via Europe
According to FranceInfo, the Tunisian arrived in Lampedusa, Italy, on September 20, before being arrested by Italian authorities and issuing a deportation order. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica also reports.
Counter-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard confirms that Italian Red Cross identity documents were found on the man when he was arrested. The man traveled through the Italian city of Bari on October 9.
According to Reuters sources, the terrorism suspect comes from a town near the city of Kairouan in Tunisia. However, more recently he had lived in Sfax, which is the second largest in the country.
He has not previously been on the lists of suspected militants of the Tunisian authorities.
We know this about the victims
Three people were killed in the knife attacks. Of these, there are two women and one man. Two of them died inside the church. The murder weapon was a 12-inch long knife with a 17-centimeter blade.
These were killed:
- A 60-year-old woman was found dead inside the church. She was found at the entrance to the church, with wounds on her neck “as in an attempted beheading,” prosecutor Ricard said at the press conference.
- Vincent Loquès, a 54-year-old church servant, was also found inside the church, with similar injuries to his neck.
- The third victim is a 44-year-old woman, who managed to escape from the church. He died in a nearby restaurant, as a result of several stab wounds.
