Entry Through Italy and a Half-Hour Massacre: Everything Known About the Terrorist Attack in Nice

France has suffered another blow from Islamists.

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on October 29, Brahim Ouissaoui burst into the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice shouting “Allahu Akbar” and, over the course of 28 minutes, killed three people.

The first victim of Ouissaoui, who was armed with a 30-centimeter knife, was a 60-year-old parishioner whom he beheaded beside the baptismal font. The Islamist then attacked a church official who was preparing for the first morning mass. 55-year-old Vincent Loquet suffered several deep stab wounds to the neck, and he also died on the spot.

Simona Barreto Silva managed to flee the cathedral and take refuge in a neighboring burger bar, but the stab wounds she sustained proved fatal. The 44-year-old native of Brazil had just enough time to tell the paramedics who arrived on the call that she loved her children, after which she died.

About half an hour after the attack began, four police officers arrived at the scene. Entering the cathedral, they came face to face with Ouissaoui, who was behaving threateningly and shouting “Allahu Akbar.” He forced the officers to use not only a stun gun but also 14 live rounds. With several gunshot wounds, he was taken to a hospital in Nice.

In the wake of the incident, France raised its terror threat level to the highest, and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the country is “at war against an ideology, Islamist ideology, which wants to impose its cultural codes and its way of life through terror.”

The 21-year-old Ouissaoui, as reported by Daily Mail, — was a Tunisian who until recently lived in Bou Hadjla. One of his neighbors said Brahim had trouble finding work, but according to local authorities, he was not among the potential extremists and was not on any police watch list.

He left the country around September 14 and, as stated in his document from the Italian Red Cross, arrived in Europe via the island of Lampedusa on a migrant boat.

Ouissaoui, who had not previously come to the attention of French intelligence services, arrived at the railway station in Nice at around 6:30 a.m. on October 29, and after changing his clothes, he reached the cathedral by 8:30. “After arriving in France, he called me,” — Brahim’s brother told Al Arabiya TV in an interview. — “He sent me a photo of the cathedral and said he wanted to spend the night near it.”

French intelligence services said that in addition to a bag with personal belongings, Ouissaoui also had two mobile phones, two more unused knives and a Quran.

On the evening of the attack, police counter-terrorism forces arrested a 47-year-old man in Nice who had provided Ouissaoui with one of the phones. He is also suspected of having been in close contact with the jihadist the day before the terrorist attack.

Similar terrorist attacks, allegedly linked to a “holy war” over Charlie Hebdo’s caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, took place on October 29 in two other locations: in the French city of Avignon, a man who threatened passersby with a knife while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” was shot dead, and in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), a guard at the French consulate was attacked. He was wounded, but his life is not in danger.

On October 16, in a suburb of Paris, a school teacher was beheaded for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class.

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