The church attack came less than two weeks after an attack by a man barreling his truck down a pedestrian zone in Nice, on the Riviera, that killed 84 people celebrating France’s national day. “Terrorists will not give up on anything until we stop them”.
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The evil pair forced him to kneel by the altar before slitting his throat in front of horrified worshippers. They are being bolstered by tens of thousands of police and reservists.
He had made failed bids to reach Syria to wage jihad, wore an electronic bracelet and was awaiting trial for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation having been released on bail.
A source close to the investigation said: “Officers across the country were engaged in the race to find this suspect, but he evaded capture”. He was stopped and questioned by profilers on his arrival at Istanbul’s worldwide airport on June 10 before he was allowed to continue on his way, a Turkish official said.
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. Authorities had been searching for him after he recently disappeared from his home in Aix-les-Bains in southeast France, officials said. They had no name to go on, but the police sources said there was now little doubt that the photo was of Petitjean.
“I was very afraid when they came in; the fear when I said to myself ‘we are going to die.’ When I saw them coming in, I thought ‘this is it, this is the end, ‘ they were very determined and motivated”.
On Wednesday, the ISIL-affiliated Amaq news agency released a video allegedly showing the church attackers sitting on a floor, clasping hands and pledging allegiance to the group.
However, yesterday his mother Yasmina refused to accept her son had committed the atrocity.
An official in the prosecutor’s office said it was “very probable” that the man, identified as Abdel-Malik Nabil Petit Jean, was the same man pictured in a photo distributed to police services four days before the attack and obtained by The Associated Press.
The newspaper says a photograph of the individual was provided but no identity, and French police were hunting for the man in the run up to the attack.
France has extended its state of emergency-first imposed after 126 people were killed in the Paris attacks last November- for another three months after the Bastille Day attack.
Opposition politicians have responded to the attacks with strong criticism of the government’s security record, unlike past year, when they made a show of unity after gunmen and bombers killed 130 people at Paris entertainment venues in November and attacked a satirical newspaper in January.
The Hollande administration is under fire for what is said to be security failings.
Anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins said Kermiche’s tag was deactivated for a few hours every morning, and the attack took place while it was not operating.
Yet even as they spoke, more horrifying details of the church attack became known.
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Security services are also said to have been passed information about an impending attack – including date and motive.
