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| Normandy church attack: French authorities identify attacker as 18-year-old Adel Kermiche | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| One of the two attackers who slit the throat of an elderly priest in a church in France has been named as Adel Kermiche. | |
| The 18-year-old and his so-far unnamed accomplice stormed the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France and forced 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel to kneel before sliting his through on camera in the style of an Isis execution video. | |
| One of the terrorists had a handgun and began to shout "Allah Akbar" and the other had a fake bomb with a timer. | |
| They then gave a 'sermon in Arabic' at the altar and were shot dead by police. Their four other hostages, including two nuns and two parishioners, were then rescued after another nun managed to escape to raise the alarm. | |
| Family friend Jonathan Sacarabany says Kermiche grew up in a housing project in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. | |
| Mr Sacarabany said the jihadist had a sister who is a doctor in Rouen and a borther. Their mother is a professor. | |
| He said the family had previously told French authorities about his radicalisation to stop him going to Syria. He was arrested in 2015 while trying to get to Syria using his brother's passport and was sent back to France. | |
| In March this year he was arrested for plotting terrorist attacks. | |
| Kermiche had been put under judicial supervision after his arrest but the electronic bracelet was deactivated for five hours a day allowing him to leave the house during the day without surveillance, an unamed police official said. | |
| The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kermiche had been required to check in with police every day. | |
| In a statement to the media, the local French prosecutor said an investigation had been launched into the "cowardly" actions of the terrorists and a number of people had been arrested in connection with the attack. | |
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