More fear than harm Tuesday, January 25 in the enclosure of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Trinity, in Blois (Loir-et-Cher).
An individual dressed in a djellaba and with intriguing behavior to arouse fear and anxiety for long minutes, until his arrest by three agents of the Anti-Crime Squad (BAC) called urgently.
On him, the agents found a long kitchen knife as well as a copy of the Koran.
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The facts occurred in the middle of the afternoon, around 4:45 p.m., as told to
Figaro
a sexton, witness of the scene, but who prefers to remain anonymous.
“The man was dressed in a white djellaba and a big black coat.
He was walking through the basilica, a little haggard, not really knowing where to go.
I did not let go of a sole.
Very quickly, he stopped a volunteer to ask him if he was the priest.
I found that very strange.
We may not be paranoid, we immediately think of what could have happened elsewhere,
in Nice for example
.
After which the suspect took his place in the choir, a place usually reserved for the clergy. He then got up and left the basilica. But a few minutes later, he walked through the church doors again, still bewildered. “
He turned to a pillar of the basilica, in the direction of the Loire, and Mecca I think, and began to pray. He raised his hands in the sky and seemed almost in a trance. His eyes were a little bulging, as if he had taken something. I said to myself ''ooh there, it's not going at all'' and that's when I called the police. At the same time, a second colleague was also watching him
, ”explains the sexton.
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Some five minutes later, a BAC crew of three officers arrived on scene and proceeded to arrest the suspect without difficulty.
While searching him, the police found a copy of the Koran as well as a long kitchen knife in its sheath.
“
A policeman told me that it was with the same kind of knife that the priest had been killed in Nice.
A tragedy that we still have in mind and that pushes us to vigilance, without giving in to psychosis,
notes the sexton
.
In this case the man was relatively calm here and he did not utter any disturbing words.
And to add: "
but still, you don't come to a Catholic place with a djellaba, a Koran and a knife... It's not normal!"
“
His mother told investigators he got weird when he forgot to take his medicine
”
Aged 48, father of two children and already known to the police for minor common law offenses, the suspect was placed in police custody and his accommodation searched, indicates for his part the public prosecutor of Blois, Frederic Chevalier.
"
His words are rambling and curious
," reports the magistrate.
“
He is a man who lives with his mother and who suffers from psychological problems.
He has been followed for several years.
His mother told investigators he got weird when he forgot to take his medicine
.
In addition, the suspect is not on an S file and has never been the subject of special surveillance for acts of radicalization or any membership in a terrorist group.
The Basilica Incident
is more a matter of psychiatry than of terrorism
”, assures the prosecutor Chevalier.
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At this stage of the investigations, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) has not taken up the case and the prosecutor has only opened an investigation for the count of
"illegal weapon carrying"
.
For the sexton, this kind of incident is quite exceptional in Blois.
“
We haven't seen any changes lately, so we have no particular reason to worry.
Blois is a quiet little town in general
”.
A few weeks after the assassination of Samuel Paty, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in the Yvelines, a terrorist knife attack perpetrated in the basilica of Nice had three dead on October 29, 2020. Among the victims was the sacristan of the basilica .
The assailant, Brahim Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian, was injured by police officers he was trying to attack, then finally arrested.