New detentions in France have brought the number of people in custody in relation to Thursday's knife attack in Nice to four - the alleged perpetrator and three men who have been brought in for questioning -, according to justice officials.
Three people died in the attack at the city's Notre Dame cathedral. The incident has been termed a "terrorist, Islamist attack." All the victims suffered deep throat wounds. One of the deceased was essentially beheaded, prosecutors said.
The attack came only two weeks after a schoolteacher who had shown caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in a lesson on freedom of speech was beheaded in a Paris suburb by a suspected Islamist.
The incidents have once again raised questions about safety and the Islamist threat in France.
The two latest detentions were reported on Saturday. The two men in question were taken into custody late on Friday.
One of those taken into custody on Friday is a 35-year-old suspected of having been in direct contact with the alleged perpetrator the day before the attack.
Tunisian attacker
The second individual detained on Friday is 33 and had been residing in the home of the 35-year-old.
The third suspect is a 47-year-old man who was arrested earlier in connection with the Nice church knife attack, and is being held for questioning, according to French judicial sources.
The alleged attacker, Brahim Aouissaoui, is a Tunisian man who entered France illegally. The attacker was seriously injured by the police and was taken to a hospital. He had entered France from Italy shortly before the crime.
France declared the highest terror warning level after the attack.
The French government's plans for a broad crackdown on Islamism and its fierce defence of freedom of expression, which gives the right to publish blasphemous images, have sparked an angry reaction in many Muslim countries.
