Three in custody in France following Nice church attack

Police stand guard outside the the Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral in Reims, eastern France, on October 30, 2020, ahead of a "mass for France" in homage to the three victims of a knife attack at a church in Nice the previous day. Credit: AFP Photo

A third person was taken into custody in France in connection with the knife attack which left three dead in Nice on Thursday, a police source said on Saturday.

The arrest took place on Friday, the source added.

An attacker beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in the city of Nice on Thursday in the second deadly knife attack in France in two weeks.

A man was shot by police and is now in critical condition in a hospital.

Also read: Never flagged as a danger, Nice attacker travelled unimpeded

France's chief anti-terrorism prosecutor has said the man suspected of carrying out the Nice attack was a Tunisian born in 1999 who had arrived in Europe on Sept. 20 in Lampedusa, the Italian island off Tunisia. On Thursday evening a 47-year-old man was taken into custody on suspicion of having been in contact with the perpetrator of the attack, a judicial source said at the time.

On Friday, a 35-year old man, who is a Nice resident, and who is suspected of having met with the assailant the day before the attack, was also taken into custody, a judicial source confirmed. The third arrest followed immediately afterwards, the police source said.

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