Police and forensic officers at the Notre Dame church in Nice, southern France, after a terror attack on October 29 claimed the lives of three people. Photo / AP
Police and forensic officers at the Notre Dame church in Nice, southern France, after a terror attack on October 29 claimed the lives of three people. Photo / AP
Hours before a sickening terror attack at a church in Nice, France, alleged knifeman Brahim Aouissaoui made an ominous call outside the building at the very scene of the tragedy.
On arriving in Nice, the 21-year-old called his family in Tunisia, his sister Afef has revealed to Sky News.
After telling his family he'd arrived in Nice that morning, they caught glimpses of the church on a video call as Aouissaoui explained he'd been looking for a place to sleep.
After media reports surfaced showing the aftermath of the attack, Aouissaoui's family were horrified to see the same building he had showed them.
The call was a confusing one for Aouissaoui's family, who were unaware of his plans to travel to France.
Police officers guard the scene on October 30. Photo / AP
"He did not tell [that he planned to leave Tunisia] and we were surprised when he told us he had reached Italy," his older brother Yassin said.
"He called me yesterday and told me that he had arrived in France, and I answered him, 'Why? Why did you not stay in Italy? You don't speak French and you don't know anyone there,'" his mother, Gamra Issawi, said.
The family are still reeling from the attack, shocked at what has happened and insistent that this behaviour is out of character for Aouissaoui.
"My brother is a friendly person and never showed extremism," Yassin told Sky News.
A photograph of Brahim Aouissaoui taken in the Italian port city of Bari.
Aouissaoui's family members are now under investigation themselves, security sources in Tunisia confirmed.
His sister Afef also revealed police had taken the family's phones.
The video call took place just hours before Aouissaoui allegedly entered the church with a large knife and killed three people, beheading a woman and stabbing two other people to death in a bloody rampage at the Basilica of Notre-Dame.
He is in a critical condition in hospital after he was shot by police following the attack.
With police working on establishing a timeline of the terror suspect's travels, it's believed that Aoussaoui arrived in Europe just weeks before launching Thursday's bloody attack.
A security source told the Parisien newspaper that Aoussaoui had followed the "classic migratory route" to Europe from North Africa, and arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on a small boat on September 20.
Mourners at a commemoration for the Nice terror victims in Berlin, Germany. Photo / AP
"The young man was then suspected of having contracted Covid-19 and was placed in solitary confinement on a ship," said the source.
According to the source, Aoussaoui should have been jailed before deportation after disembarking on October 9 in the port of Bari with no papers and clearly suffering health problems.
Instead, authorities failed to confirm the killer's identity and he was allowed to leave.
He made his way to Paris, and then to Nice, travelling by train in a manner that did not alert officials.
Second man arrested
News of Aouissaoui's puzzling phone call comes after French police arrested a second man in relation to the Nice attack.
The 47-year-old is believed to have been in contact with Aouissaoui the night before the attack.
A substitute prosecutor at the Tunisian anti-terrorism prosecutor's office, Mohsen Dali, told The Associated Press that the claim of responsibility came in an online post saying the attack was staged by a group called Al Mehdi of Southern Tunisia, previously unknown to Tunisian authorities.
