According to our information, on Tuesday January the 25th, a person of “North African” descent, Norredine A., was arrested and taken into custody by the police (BAC) at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Trinité in Blois. It was 4.45 pm when the latter entered the sanctuary. An employee of the basilica, who had become aware of the suspicious behaviour of the man wearing a djellaba, witnessed him coming and going. After asking a volunteer if he was the priest, the man took a seat in the choir room, which is actually reserved for the clergy. Soon after, the man was asked to leave the basilica.
The man stood in the middle of the nave, his body turned towards Mecca, and began to pray, as we have gathered from witness statements. “He really seemed to be in a kind of frenzy … as described by those who encountered the killers at the Bataclan before they carried out their carnage,” one of our sources said. The police were alerted and intervened. Within five minutes, a BAC patrol was on the scene and arrested the man, who offered no resistance. A worshipper at the shrine told the police that she had already seen him at the basilica the previous day.
In the course of the search of the person, a Quran and a long kitchen knife were found still attached to his belt. He was taken into police custody and his flat was searched. The man was unknown to the French security agency SDAT and the DGSI and was not registered as an Islamist “S”. However, he was known for other offences. A lone wolf? The man claimed to be “Prince of Jerusalem”. “Another madman!” said a source familiar with the investigation.
It is not the first time that the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Trinité in Blois has been the target of an attack. And specifically on its parish priest. Father Vincent, who was not present at the time of the incident, told us “his concern” on the phone. He had already filed a complaint in recent months after receiving explicit threats by phone.
So what was going on at the Basilica Notre-Dame de la Trinité in Blois on Tuesday afternoon? Was a jihadist knife attack miraculously foiled? According to our information, the public prosecutor of Blois instructed the police station to record the man for simple possession of a weapon without informing the criminal investigation department. At this point, the National Anti-terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) has not yet dealt with the case.