People pay tribute to victims of knife attack outside Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, France, Oct. 30, 2020. France's vigilance against terrorism is raised to the highest level of "attack emergency" throughout the national territory following the knife attack in Nice, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday. Early Thursday morning, a knife attacker stabbed to death three people at Notre-Dame basilica in central Nice. The alleged perpetrator has shot by police and transferred to hospital.Photo:Xinhua
French Catholics on Sunday celebrated the All Saints religious festival under heavy security, as police made two new arrests over an attack on a church in Nice blamed on an Islamist knifeman.
Three people were killed in the knife rampage Thursday in the Notre-Dame Basilica that prosecutors say was carried out by a young Tunisian who recently arrived in Europe.
It was the latest attack in France to be described by the government as an act of "Islamist" terror, in the wake of the republication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad by the Charlie Hebdo weekly in September.
In Nice, three men were released from police custody on Sunday after authorities determined they were not linked to the suspected attacker Brahim Issaoui, a source close to the investigation said.
Three men remain in custody, including a 29-year-old Tunisian suspected of migrating with Issaoui from their homeland to France.
The tensions did not prevent Catholics from going to church to celebrate the All Saints holiday in Nice, authorities allowing an exemption during the coronavirus lockdown.
"I was apprehensive, I was scared of coming," said Claudia, 49, as she went to church, reassured by the presence of heavily armed soldiers.
"We need to show that we are not scared and we are here," she said, following several other worshippers into the church, where around 150 people attended an early evening mass honoring the three victims.
Issaoui was shot by police multiple times and is currently in a serious condition in hospital. Investigators have been unable to question him and his precise motivations remain unclear.
But Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that Issaoui "had clearly gone there [to Nice] to kill."
"Otherwise how can we explain why he armed himself with several knifes having only just arrived?... He clearly did not come just to get his papers."
Investigators believe Issaoui traveled to Europe via Italy's Mediterranean island of Lampedusa on September 20.
The 21-year-old arrived at the Italian port of Bari on October 9 before arriving in Nice just two days before the attack.
The latest men to be detained, aged 25 and 63, were arrested Saturday at the residence of the 29-year-old Tunisian, who was arrested earlier in the day, a judicial source told AFP.
The detained Tunisian is "suspected of mixing with" Issaoui during their journey to Europe, the source close to the investigation told AFP, adding he also likely arrived in France recently.
AFP