For Darmanin, the assailant from Nice "came" to France "to kill"

The Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice, where the terrorist attack took place on Thursday.

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Brahim Issaoui, the alleged perpetrator of the fatal knife attack Thursday in the basilica of Nice "had only been present on the national territory for a few hours" and had "obviously" come to France "to kill", declared Gerald Darmanin, in an interview with the

published this Sunday.

"How else to explain why he armed himself with several knives barely arrived", pointed out the Minister of the Interior.

According to a source close to the investigation, the 21-year-old Tunisian arrived in Nice on Tuesday and was spotted by CCTV cameras near the basilica the day before the incident.

“Of course, it is up to the counterterrorism prosecutor to define when his murderous plan was constructed.

But he obviously did not come to obtain papers, ”he added.

Six people in custody

Seriously injured during his arrest, the 21-year-old Tunisian, with a criminal record of common law - violence and drugs -, he left the city of Sfax, in central Tunisia, in mid-September, where he lived with his family.

Arrived illegally in Europe by the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 20, he would have landed on the continent, in Bari, in southern Italy, on October 9.

Our file on the Nice attack

Six people are currently in police custody in the investigation of this attack in which three faithful were killed, we learned Sunday from a judicial source.

Society

Four years later, the inhabitants of Nice plunge back into the fear of terrorism

Society

In the city center, between shops and the "Muslim quarter", Notre-Dame de Nice welcomes tourists and regulars

• Attack

• Gerald Darmanin

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• Nice