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French authorities have revealed that the Nice attacker who killed three people is Tunisian and was unknown to the security services.
France’s chief counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said the young man, born in 1999, arrived in the city by train and changed his clothes at the station before walking 400 meters to the Notre Dame church.
He entered France from Italy, traveling through the southern Italian city of Bari on October 9, after arriving on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa on September 20.
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He was carrying an identity card from the Italian Red Cross and a bag containing two unused knives was found.
Following the attack on the church, he addressed the police in a “threatening manner”, shouting Allahu Akbar. [God is greatest] before being shot and seriously injured by officers.
He is being treated at the hospital, Ricard said.
One of the three people stabbed to death has been named as a Vincent Loques church worker.
Local politician Eric Ciotti tweeted a photo of Loques dressed in a T-shirt, relaxed and smiling.
He said Loques was a “devoted employee” of the Notre Dame church.
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Mr. Ricard described the scene of the attack. He said a 60-year-old woman suffered a “very deep throat cut, like a decapitation.”
She and Mr. Loques died at the scene, while a 44-year-old woman left the church and died at a local cafe.
Loques was 55 years old and the father of two children, the newspaper La Parisien reported.
Members of the parish said that he had been a church director for ten years and that he was “expansive and understanding.”
A relative of one of the victims watches
President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Nice on Thursday afternoon, said his country had been “attacked” and expressed “France’s support for the Catholic community.”
He added that the number of soldiers deployed to protect schools and religious sites would increase from about 3,000 at this time to 7,000.
Reuters reporters at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons placed a security cordon around the church, which is located on Nice’s Jean Medecin avenue, the city’s main commercial thoroughfare.
Sounds of explosions could be heard as sappers detonated suspicious objects.
Prime Minister Jean Castex has told Nice residents to only leave the house to buy food, go to work, medical reasons or urgent family matters.
President Emmanuel Macron visited the place
A representative of the French Council for the Muslim Faith condemned the attack, saying. “As a sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones, I ask all Muslims in France to cancel all celebrations for the holiday of Mawlid (the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad).”
In a separate incident shortly thereafter, French police confirmed that a man was shot and killed near Avignon, after threatening passersby with a pistol in the Montfavet district.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a man was arrested after stabbing and wounding a guard at the French consulate, state media reported.
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Comes as the country stay on high alert for terrorist attacks following the beheading earlier this month of a French high school teacher Samuel Paty in Paris.
The attacker had said that he wanted to punish Mr. Paty for showing the students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics lesson.
Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said the victims in Nice had been killed in a “horrible way”.
“The methods undoubtedly coincide with those used against the brave teacher at Conflans Sainte Honorine, Samuel Paty.”
He added: “Attack in Nice, attack in Avignon, attack on the French consulate in Saudi Arabia. It is not a coincidence.”
Since Paty’s assassination, French officials, backed by many ordinary citizens, have reaffirmed the right to show cartoons, and the images have been widely exhibited in marches in solidarity with the murdered teacher.
That has caused a outpouring of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing President Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.
