Terrorist Brahim Aouissaoui’s telling phone call before attack revealed

The man who beheaded a woman in France made a video call to his family just before he committed the unthinkable. This is what he said.

Hours before the sickening terror attack at a church in Nice, knifeman Brahim Aouissaoui made an ominous call outside the building at the very scene of the tragedy.

On arriving in Nice, the 21-year-old terrorist called his family in Tunisia, his sister Afef has revealed to Sky News.

After telling his family he’d arrived in the Southern French city that morning, they caught glimpses of the church on a video call as Aouissaoui explained he’d been looking for a place to sleep.

After media reports surfaced showing the aftermath of the attack, Aouissaoui’s family were horrified to see the same building the 21-year-old had showed them.

RELATED: What we know about 21-year-old killer Brahim Aouissaoui

Yassin holds up a photo of his brother, accused Nice assailant Brahim Aouissaoui. Picture: Fethi Belaid/AFP

Aouissaoui after the attack.

A picture from the killer’s family. Picture: AFP

The call was a confusing one for the knifeman’s family, who were unaware of his plans to travel to France.

“He did not tell (that he planned to leave Tunisia) and we were surprised when he told us he had reached Italy,” his brother Yassin said.

“He called me yesterday and told me that he had arrived in France, and I answered him, ‘Why? Why did you not stay in Italy? You don’t speak French and you don’t know anyone there,’” his mother, Gamra Issawi, revealed.

The family are still reeling from the attack, shocked at what has happened and insistent that this behaviour is out of character for Aouissaoui.

“My brother is a friendly person and never showed extremism,” older brother Yassin told Sky News.

Yassin carries his daughter, the knifeman’s niece, in front of the family home in the Tunisian city of Sfax. Picture: Fethi Belaid/AFP.

From the Tunisian province of Sfax, Aouissaoui’s mother, eyes wet with tears, said she had no idea what her son was planning. Picture: Houssem Zouari/AFP.

BREAKING - Knife stabbing attack at Notre-Dame church in Nice. One dead and several injured. pic.twitter.com/EOoQGL2yHG

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The 21-year-old’s family members are now under investigation themselves, security sources in Tunisia confirmed.

His sister Afef also revealed police had taken the family’s phones.

The call took place just hours before Aouissaoui entered the church with a large knife and killed three people, beheading a woman and stabbing two other people to death in a bloody rampage at the Basilica of Notre-Dame.

He is in a critical condition in hospital after he was shot by police following the attack.

A woman lays flowers in front of the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption Basilica in Nice, during a tribute to the victims killed. Picture: Valery Hache/AFP

With police working on establishing a timeline of the terror suspect’s travels, it’s believe that Aoussaoui arrived in Europe just weeks before launching Thursday’s bloody attack.

A security source told a Parisien newspaper that Aoussaoui had followed the “classic migratory route” to Europe from North Africa, and arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on a small boat on September 20.

“The young man was then suspected of having contracted COVID-19 and was placed in solitary confinement on a ship,” said the source.

According to the source, Aoussaoui should have been jailed before deportation after disembarking on October 9 in the port of Bari with no papers and clearly suffering health problems.

Instead, authorities failed to confirm the killer’s identity and he was let free.

He then made his way to Paris, and then to Nice, travelling by train in a manner that did not alert officials.

The Tunisian terrorist was pictured grinning after arriving in Italy weeks before he was "freed from detention". Picture: Supplied

SECOND MAN ARRESTED

News of Aouissaoui’s puzzling phone call comes after French police arrested a second man in relation to the Nice attack.

Police arrested a 47-year-old believed to have been in contact with Aouissaoui the night before the attack.

A substitute prosecutor at the Tunisian anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, Mohsen Dali, told The Associated Press that the claim of responsibility came in an online post saying the attack was staged by a group called Al Mehdi of Southern Tunisia, previously unknown to Tunisian authorities.