France church attack second suspect identified

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IANS Paris
Last Updated : Jul 28 2016 | 2:02 PM IST

French prosecutors on Thursday announced that the second man involved in the killing of an 86-year-old priest in a Normandy church was identified as Abdel Malik Petitjean.

The other attacker had earlier been named as Adel Kermiche. Both the attackers are 19-year-old, BBC reported quoting the prosecutors as saying.

"Following DNA tests, it emerged that the terrorist was identified as Abdel Malik Nabil Petitjean," a source in the Paris prosecutor's office was quoted as saying by French media.

The pair were shot dead on Tuesday outside the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where they killed Father Jacques Hamel and had taken hostages.

Petitjean, was already on a radicals' watch list, the BBC reported citing the source as saying.

Police was looking for him for several days before the attack, the source added.

The Islamic State released a video of the two men pledging allegiance to the group, BBC added.

--IANS

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First Published: Jul 28 2016 | 1:50 PM IST

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