Syrian asylum seeker in custody over links with church attack: report

French investigators were questioning a Syrian asylum seeker over his role in a church attack in which assailants cut the throat of an elderly priest earlier this week, local media reported on Friday.

The Syrian refugee was arrested near a camp of asylum seekers in the Allier region in central France. A copy of his passport was found at the home of Adel Kermiche, one of the church attackers, according to reports.

Two others including a minor were still in custody, the added.

On Tuesday, two teenagers took six hostages in a church in northern France before slaughtering a priest and seriously wounding a second captive. They were shot dead by police.

The first assailant Kermiche tried to reach Syria in 2015 before being intercepted by German police in March and Turkish authorities two months later.

Pending trail on terrorism charges, he was under house arrest and wore an electronic tag which allows police to trace him.

His accomplice was identified as Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean from Saint-Die-des-Vosges, northeastern France. He was on a security watch list since the end of June for becoming radicalized and being a potential terrorist. Enditem