Second French church attacker identified

French investigators have formally identified the second jihadist who attacked a church and killed a priest, a young man who was known to authorities after having tried to travel to Syria, a source in the prosecutor’s office said Thursday. Four days before the murder of Father Jacques Hammel in the village of Saint-Etienne Du Vouvray, police had been informed by the intelligence services about a planned atrocity.

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.

Like Kermiche, Petitjean was born to a family of Algerian origin.

A judicial source confirmed a Syrian was being held in custody.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said the two men had pledged allegiance to its leader.

The church attack came less than two weeks after a man used a truck to mow down pedestrians on the Nice waterfront, killing 84 people on France’s national day, Bastille Day. The man was local and had been arrested trying to make his way to fight for the Islamic State in Syria. Security services estimate that more than 8,000 individuals are suspected of being or are on the verge of being radicalized in France.

Opposition politicians have responded to the attacks with strong criticism of the Socialist government’s security record, unlike past year, when they made a show of unity after gunmen and bombers killed 130 people in Paris in November and attacked a satirical newspaper in January.

As the two attackers made to leave the church they were confronted by a French police unit specialising in hostage situations, the BRI, and shot dead.

The church is located about 104 kilometers north of Paris, where in November members of IS killed 130 people during coordinated attacks on the city.

French President Francois Hollande is under pressure after criticism over the way his government has handled the surge in attacks.

“All this violence and barbarism has paralyzed the French left since January 2015”, Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year’s presidential election, told Le Monde newspaper.

“We are stunned because we did not know it was unsafe to be a priest these days in France”, said Pierre Amar, a priest from Versailles near Paris. But he warned France would be targeted again.

Pope Francis, visiting Krakow, Poland, for World Youth Day celebrations, said of the slaying of the priest, “It’s war, we don’t have to be afraid to say this”.

Dressed in a striped t-shirt, Petitjean speaks mostly in French but uses some Arabic phrases, and appears to be filming in a home.

“There will be no silence here. or beyond”, Mayor Hubert Wulfranc said of the loss of the town’s 85-year-old priest in an address to hundreds. You will suffer what our brothers and sisters are suffering. We know well that the only brotherhood, in our country, is the voice that leads to lasting peace.

“Brothers go out with a knife, whatever is needed, attack them, kill them en masse”, he says, calling on Muslims to attack allies of the worldwide coalition fighting against Islamist militants in Syria.