The Tunisian man suspected of killing three people in the French city of Nice spoke to his family on a video call outside the church hours before the attack, but he had shown no sign that he planned any violence, relatives said on Friday.
Brahim Aouissaoui had gone to the Notre-Dame church soon after arriving in Nice on Thursday morning looking for a place to sleep, his sister Afef said. He had shown them the area and said he planned to rest in a building opposite the church.
When they saw the television report showing the aftermath of the attack in which three people were killed, they immediately recognized the place he had been.
However, several members of Aouissaoui's family, speaking to Reuters in a suburb of the Tunisian city of Sfax, said they were in shock at his detention by police and the idea that he had committed such a violent crime.