Asylum seeker detained over Rouen attack

(ANSA) - Paris, July 29 - A Syrian asylum seeker has been detained in connection with Tuesday's deadly attack on a church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-de-Rouvray, sources close to the investigation said Friday.
    The 22-year-old was apprehended on Thursday in the department of Allier, said judicial sources cited by BFM-TV. He is alleged to have links to Adel Kermiche, one of the two knife-wielding terrorists who entered a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during Mass, and took the priest, 85-year-old Jacques Hamel, and four other people hostage.
    The attackers slit Hamel's throat before being killed by security forces.
    In total five people have been detained in connection with the attack, of whom two were subsequently released.
    Meanwhile French Premier Manuel Valls said on Friday the decision to release 19-year-old Kermiche from prison earlier this year with an electronic tag had been a "failure".
    Kermiche was already known to anti-terrorism investigators after twice being stopped trying to enter Syria.