The 60-year-old woman who was beheaded in the Nice terror attack was a kind-hearted devout catholic, it has emerged.
Married Nadine Devillers was a regular parishioner at the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption church. Her husband broke down in tears when he confirmed that she had died in such terrible circumstance in a desperate phone call from her friend of 30 years.
Her childhood friend Joelle Guichard told Var Matin newspaper: ‘She was kindness with a capital K.‘We have been friends for 30 years. I heard about the horror in Nice. I immediately thought of Nadine.
‘She lives not far from the cathedral and she is a devout catholic. I took my phone to call her. I saw I had a missed call, it was Nadine’s husband.‘As soon as he picked up the phone, when I heard his sobs, I understood.
‘Is it her?, I asked. ‘”Yes,” he replied. “It is her”.
‘”It’s an absolute nightmare”, he added.’
The two women had grown up in Draguignan, a town in the Var region, west of Nice.
Joelle, added: ‘Nadine left for Nice aged 18. She had a strong and pure heart.’
Ms Guichard moved to Quebec, Canada, but they stayed in touch with regular phone calls.
The vicious knife attack at Nice’s Notre Dame cathedral that left three dead was planned and organised from abroad, French investigators believe.
Nice terrorist Brahim Aoussaoui is seen in a photograph taken at the Italian port city of Bari, where he disembarked from a coronavirus quarantine ship on October 8 – marking his arrival in mainland Europe
The profile of the attacker, the identity of his contacts and the speed of the attack suggest the atrocity had been planned in advance by committed jihadists, Le Parisien newspaper reported this morning.
It said: ‘After the killings on Thursday at Notre-Dame de l’Assomption Basillica, the provenance, profile, contacts and rapid act of the alleged assailant are questioning investigators.’
Meanwhile anti-terrorist police arrested a third man in connection with the atrocity.
Brazilian-born Simone Barreto Silva, 44, also succumbed to her injuries after seeking refuge in a nearby burger bar. Her last words were to paramedics, who she told: ‘Tell my children that I love them’ 
Vincent Loques, 54, a sacristan of the Notre Dame basilica in the city of Nice, was brutally killed as he prepared for the first Mass of the day after 21-year-old Tunisian migrant Brahim Aoussaoui attacked the church
Kmar (right), the mother of Nice attacker Brahim Aouissaoui who killed three people in Thursday’s terror attack, cries at her home in Tunisia last night after being questioned by counter-terrorism police