The sources said France’s anti-terrorism police unit UCLAT sent out a note four days before the attack – saying it had received “reliable” information about a person “about to carry out an attack on national territory”.
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On Friday, French media revealed that Turkish intelligence had tipped off the French government as to the high risk posed by Abdel Malik Petitjean.
French police are yet to release Abdel Malik’s full surname yet.
With the attack threat ranked extremely high, France must also protect 56 remaining summer events, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve noted Wednesday, adding that where “optimal” security can not be assured, an event will be canceled. Another nun at the Mass slipped away and raised the alarm. After the priest was slain, both attackers, at least one of them a local man, were killed by police outside the church.
Prosecutors said Petitjean was born in Saint-Die-des-Vosges, eastern France, but most recently lived in the Alpine town of Aix-les-Bains where his mother lives.
Residents of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray were struggling to come to terms with the bloodshed in their small town, so far from France’s tourist hubs.
A man detained after the attack was still being held for questioning, the prosecutor’s office said.
In an editorial, Le Monde newspaper wrote that France was under attack as it had one of the biggest Muslim communities in Europe.
A neighbour of Kermiche in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, who gave his name only as Redwan, said he had known who was responsible as soon as he heard about the attack.
However, Petitjean never went to Syria but instead returned nearly immediately to France, the security official said, and was back inside the country long before his name was added June 29 to France’s watch list. The official spoke anonymously because not authorized to speak publicly on the investigation.
The archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, called on Catholics to “overcome hatred that comes in their hearts” and not to allow the Islamic State group “to set children of the same family upon each other”. The government has said there are about 10,500 people with so-called “S files” related to potential jihadi activities in France.
Police had no name, only a photograph, that appears to be of Petitjean, RTL radio said.
Intelligence officials worked Thursday to try to explain how Petitjean, a young man without a police record, ended up in the Normandy church with Kermiche, while the people of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray paid homage to the Rev. Jacques Hamel at a gathering. However, it was not clear if the two men were inspired from afar by jihadist propaganda, or were following direct orders.
Emotions in France that were raw after a July 14 truck attack in Nice that killed 84 people became more frazzled after the church in Normandy was attacked.
“We are stunned, because we did not know it was unsafe to be a priest these days in France”, said Pierre Amar, a priest from Versailles near Paris.
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The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack, too, as well as two attacks that followed in Germany.
