France names 2nd church attacker as anger grows

France yesterday identified the second jihadist involved in the brutal killing of an elderly priest, as calls mounted for the prime minister and interior minister to resign after the latest terror attack.

Prosecutors named the assailant as 19-year-old Abdel Malik Petitjean, who was listed in June on France's "Fiche S" system of people posing a potential threat to national security after he tried to reach Syria from Turkey.

Petitjean, whose face was disfigured when he was shot dead by police, had been harder to identify than his accomplice Adel Kermiche, also 19. Investigators confirmed Petitjean's identity after a DNA match with his mother.

The two jihadists pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video made before they stormed a church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on Tuesday and slit the throat of 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel at the altar.

President Hollande yesterday confirmed plans to create a National Guard drawn from existing reserves, after the government previously urged "patriots" to sign up to become reservists.

The government has faced tough questions since it emerged that both church attackers had been on the radar of intelligence services and had tried to go to Syria.

Sparking particular ire was the revelation that Kermiche had been released from prison while awaiting trial on terror charges after his second attempt to travel to Syria. He was fitted with an electronic tag -- allowing him out of the house on weekday mornings -- despite calls from the prosecutor for him not to be released.

Petitjean, from France's eastern Savoie region, had several part-time sales jobs and was described by his incredulous mother as "gentle", insisting he "was not involved at all".

Others who knew him were equally shocked, describing him as normal and showing no signs of radicalisation.