The knife attacker who beheaded a woman and killed two other people at a church in Nice, southern France, on Thursday morning has been identified as a 21-year old Tunisian man named Brahim Aouissaoui. 

Who is the attacker?

At the moment, all that's known about Aouissaoui is that he was born on 29 March 1999 in Tunisia, and that in September and October he was in Italy.

According to France's chief anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, Aouissaoui had arrived in Europe on September 20 via Lampedusa, the Italian island in the Mediterranean. The island has become a primary point of entry for migrants from Africa in the last two decades as it's geographically closer to Tunisia (113 kilometers away) than Sicily (more than 200 kilometers distant).

After 14 days of mandatory quarantine, on October 9 Aouissaoui was then transfered for identification to Bari, in the Italian mainland region of Puglia, where he was given a warning to leave the country in seven days. He didn't make a request for asylum or register with any NGOs working with migrants in Italy.

Because of the high number of migrants processed in Italy, many are given an 'exit slip' but not repatriated immediately. Aouissaoui likely traveled to France illegally in early October, where he didn't make a request for political asylum.

Ricard said the suspect entered Nice by train early on Thursday morning.

Aouissaoui had spoken to his family on a video call outside the church just hours before the attack, as relatives told journalists on Friday. He told them he was looking for a place to sleep in a building opposite the church. 

Having been captured by police and taken into custody, he remains in critical condition in hospital.

Aouissaoui's family, speaking to Reuters in a suburb of the Tunisian port city of Sfax, said they were in shock at the idea that he had committed such a violent crime.

"My brother is a friendly person and never showed extremism," Brahim Aouissaoui's older brother Yassin said. "He respected all other people and accepted their differences even since he was a child.

"He did not tell [that he planned to leave Tunisia] and we were surprised when he told us he had reached Italy," Yassin said. 

Security sources in Tunisia said on Thursday the family is also under investigation, while a group called the Mahdi Organization is being investigated in connection to the attack.

French authorities are now trying to track Aouissaoui's movements after he left Bari, and whom he got in touch with since then.

According to a judicial source, another suspect – a 47-year-old man – has been taken into custody on Thursday evening over alleged contact with the attacker.

Who are the victims?

The first victim of the attacker was Vincent Loqués, the 55-year-old church warden. He had been the sexton of the basilica for 10 years.

The eldest victim, the 60-year-old woman who was partially beheaded, had been inside the church praying since shortly after the basilica had opened in the morning.

The third victim, who died after seeking shelter in a nearby bar, was a 44-year-old mother of three named in Brazilian media as Simone Barreto Silva.

Mourners in the city are laying wreaths by the site of the attack and paying homage to the victims. "I'm from Nice and this is a tragedy once again," said a resident, Frederic Lefevre, to Reuters. 

"We're a free country, we have demonstrated freedom to all countries of the world. Today, this freedom is closing in on us. Life needs to be lived for everyone. Let's love freedom – that's a message to the world. Life should be spiritual. No god should kill."

What is the French government's response?

All churches have been closed in Nice until further notice, and the whole territory of France is now under the highest level of security. President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Nice yesterday, said "the whole of France is attacked" and promised the deployment of 7,000 soldiers to protect key sites such as schools and churches.

"If we've been attacked again, it's because of our values: our taste for freedom, the possibility there is here to believe freely and not to give in to any terror. Let me say this very clearly again: we will never give in," he said.

Interior minister Gerald Damarnin echoed the president, saying France is engaged in a war against Islamist ideology and should expect more attacks from militants.

"We are in a war against an enemy that is both inside and outside," interior minister Gerald Damarnin told RTL radio the day after the attack in Nice. "We need to understand that there have been and there will be other events such as these terrible attacks."

How has the world reacted?

World leaders expressed their condolences to France and condemned the attack, including Arab and Islamic leaders. Even Turkey, despite recent clashes between Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressed solidarity with France. Turkish presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun said that Islam cannot be used in the name of terrorism.

But the response of the French government to Thursday's attack has been deemed inflammatory for many in the Muslim world and concerning for the six million Muslims living in France.

"There's an attempt to take France hostage with regards to its Muslims," vice president of the regional Muslim council Boubekeur Bekri told Reuters journalists. 

"We will not fall into this trap. I want to say strongly, from deep within, how much we are dismayed and revolted by what is happening. But at one point, we have to dare to comprehend this process and talk about it with force."

Protests have sparked in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, with thousands of Muslim demonstrators demanding a boycott of French products.

"Macron is leading Islamophobia," said demonstrator Akramul Haq. "He doesn't know the power of Islam. The Muslim world will not let this go in vain. We'll rise and stand in solidarity against him."

On Friday morning in Berlin, Germany, members of the Muslim Interaktiv organization protested against Macron in front of the French Embassy.

Cover image: Valery Hache/AFP