Second man arrested over French priest's murder

August 10, 2016 18:40

Police in southwest France arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with the jihadist killing of a priest in a Normandy church last month, judicial sources said today.

The man arrested on Monday in the Toulouse area is the second to be held in connection with the murder of 85-year-old Jacques Hamel, whose throat was slit in front of worshippers while he was celebrating mass in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on July 26.

A police source said he had been in contact with the cleric's killers, Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

The pair, both aged 19, were shot dead by police after a hostage drama in which a worshipper was seriously wounded.

The grisly attack -- the first committed in the name of IS against a church in the West -- came less than two weeks after a Tunisian ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 85 people and wounding more than 300.

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