47-year-old man in police custody over alleged links with Nice church killer

A 47-year-old man -- believed to have been in contact with the suspected knifeman involved in a terror attack at a church in Nice -- has been detained by the police in France for questioning.

The man was detained on Thursday night after the attack at the city's Notre-Dame basilica by a 21-year-old Tunisian who arrived in France on October 9.

The knife-wielding Tunisian national shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday before being shot and taken away by police.

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France's anti-terror prosecutor said the attacker, identified as Brahim Aouissaoui, had a copy of the Quran, two phones and three knives when he entered the church in the centre of the Mediterranean city at around 8:30 am.

He slit the throats of a 60-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man who worked at the church, and stabbed a 44-year-old woman who managed to flee but later died of her wounds.

President Emmanuel Macron called it an "Islamist terrorist attack," and the government has placed its terror alert at maximum ahead of the Catholic holiday of All Saints Day on Sunday.

Macron is holding an emergency meeting over the attack with top ministers Friday.

(with inputs)