Third Person Linked to Nice Knife Attack Detained, Reports Say

The gruesome incident in Nice that claimed three lives this week was the second heinous terror attack in France in October, after a radicalised teen decapitated a teacher in a Paris suburb for showing caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad in class.

A third man has been detained in connection with the Nice attack, BFM TV reported, citing its sources. According to reports, the 33-year-old suspect is a relative of another detainee taken into custody on Friday and was present in his house during the police raid.

On Thursday morning, a knife-wielding perpetrator attacked people at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice. He killed three people, reportedly decapitating one of them, and was later shot by police. 

Candles, flowers and messages are seen in front of the Notre Dame church in tribute to the victims of a deadly knife attack in Nice, France, October 30, 2020.

© REUTERS / ERIC GAILLARD

According to Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, the suspect "endlessly repeated 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)" as he was being treated for his injury.

The perpetrator, identified as Brahim al-Aouissaoui, who was born in Tunisia in 1999, had reportedly arrived in France in October via the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to the Tunisian authorities, he was arrested in 2016 for using a knife in a violent dispute.

The attack occurred less than two weeks after teacher Samuel Paty from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Paris suburb) was beheaded by a teen of Chechen origin for showing Charlie Hebdo's caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in one of his classes on freedom of speech.