The second attacker who cut the throat of a village priest in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) is believed to be Abdel Malik P., a 19-year-old from Savoie, south-eastern France, reports The Telegraph.
A source close to the police investigation told The Telegraph it was "highly likely" that Mr Malik was the second terrorist.
An identity card belonging to Abdel Malik P. was found during a search of the home of Adel Kermiche’s parents on Tuesday.
Police also searched an address in Aix-les-Bains, a town in Savoie, as part of the investigation into the Normandy church attack, the regional newspaper Dauphiné Libéré reported.
Abdel Malik P. was known to the security services as having been radicalised although he had no convictions. It is believed his fingerprints were on record. Abdel Malik P. is also believed to have tried to travel to Syria. Kermiche made two attempts but was arrested both times.
The other terrorist Adel Kermiche had been turned back from Syria and was under police supervision, wearing an electronic tag.
French police and intelligence services were last night under intense scrutiny, after it emerged that Mr Kermiche was known to have been radicalised and was on a watch list as a potential threat to national security.
It was also last night reported that the church had been on a “hit list” found on a 24-year-old Algerian jihadi who had planned attacks last year in a Parisian suburb. Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer sciences student, was arrested by French police who are investigating whether he was directed to carry out attacks on churches by IS.
The country’s security services have been accused of a series of failings after attacks by Islamist jihadists in the past 18 months.
Kermiche, 19, began making contact with radicals on the internet after the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks in January 2015 and came to authorities’ attention when he tried to help a teenager from Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray join IS.
He also twice attempted to go to Syria himself, but was arrested once in Munich and later sent back from Turkey to Geneva, where he was charged with “criminal association in connection with terrorism”.
He was returned to France and held in custody for 10 months. In March this year, he was released and tagged, despite the discovery of a mobile phone SIM card in his cell, it emerged on Wednesday. Prisoners are not allowed to have mobile phones or make calls from their cells.