A man dressed in traditional Islamic clothing and carrying a knife and a copy of the Qu’ran was arrested in a French church this week after witnesses called police over a man acting, in their opinions, suspiciously.
The incident took place on Tuesday at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Trinité in the commune of Blois at around 4:45 pm and saw the man, dressed in a white djellaba, walk around the Basilica asking a volunteer if he was a priest.
“I found it very strange. We may not be paranoid, but we immediately think of what may have happened elsewhere, in Nice for example,” a witness told the French newspaper Le Figaro.
In October of 2020, a radical Islamic Tunisian illegal immigrant terrorist killed three people in the Nice Basilica with a knife before being shot by police.
According to the witness, the suspicious man sat in an area reserved for clergy members before leaving the basilica and coming back a short time later looking confused.
“He turned to a pillar of the basilica, in the direction of the Loire, and Mecca it seems to me, and began to pray. He raised his hands to heaven and almost appeared to be in a trance. His eyes were a little bulging as if he had taken something. I thought “oh la la, it’s not okay at all” and that’s when I called the police,” the witness said.
When three officers of the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) arrived at the church they arrested the man and found a long kitchen knife and a copy of the Qu’ran on his person.
“In this case, the man was here relatively calm and he did not say any disturbing words,” the witness told Le Figaro and added, “But you don’t come to a Catholic place with a djellaba, a Koran and a knife… This is not normal!”
Police say that the man, aged 48, is known to them for prior petty crime and claimed he has a history of mental health issues. Investigators added that his mother claimed the man had stopped taking prescribed medication for his mental health problems. The 49-year-old has never been registered on a French terrorist watchlist, however.
So far, prosecutors say they are only looking at charging the man with carrying an illegal weapon and the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) has so far declined to take up the case.
The incident comes a month after a man armed with a box cutter was arrested at a church in the Parisian suburb of Val-de-Marne after he threatened to kill a worshipper. Police later searched the man who appeared to be wearing a fake suicide belt-type device as well.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.