Terrorist sent a SELFIE to his family hours before launching a deadly attack

Dressed to kill, this is Nice knifeman Brahim Aouissaoui just hours before he launched his vicious attack on worshippers at the Notre Dame Cathedral, beheading one of his victims.

The 21-year-old migrant sent this selfie picture to friends back in Tunisia to show off his new clothes, bought with money working illegally in Europe. 

The image was taken at a shop in France the day before he walked into the church in the centre of Nice armed with two knives and intent on murder.

And he was wearing the same clothes – a red puffa jacket, white t-shirt, distressed blue jeans and trainers – when he was shot by armed police who brought his murderous attack to an end.

The photos is one of a series of pictures that Aouissaoui sent to friends and relatives in Tunisia chronicling his journey across the Mediterranean Sea, through Italy and to France.

His mother Gamra, 61, revealed: ‘Brahim did start praying and taking his religion more seriously a few months ago but he was not in contact with Salafists [Islamic extremists]

The killer is pictured wearing a white t-shirt claiming to ‘love life’ outside his family’s humble home near Sfax and in a cabin of the Italian quarantine ship where he spent 14 days after arriving in Europe on a migrant ship.

However the Islamist extremist gave no hint that he planned to carry out his deadly assault on innocent Christian worshippers, his family and friends have told MailOnline.

His older brother Yassin, 38, said: ‘He bought new clothes and a mobile phone in France with the money he had earned working harvesting olives in Italy.

‘He was very proud of his new clothes and wanted to show us he was doing well.

‘Brahim said he wanted to go to Europe to earn money to buy a car.’

He added: ‘He made a lot of phone calls the night before the attack. He called us, the family and his friends. He spent hours on the phone reassuring us that everything was fine. He said he had met an Arab man who was helping him to get on his feet in France.’

The killer is pictured wearing a white t-shirt claiming to ‘love life’ outside his family’s humble home near Sfax

Brahim’s brother Yassine shows the picture he has of his brother

The family are devastated at his murderous attack and claim they had no inkling that he had become radicalised.

His mother Gamra, 61, revealed: ‘Brahim did start praying and taking his religion more seriously a few months ago but he was not in contact with Salafists [Islamic extremists].

‘I thought becoming more interested in his religion would stop him drinking and taking drugs.’

His father Muhammad, 63, cannot believe that his gentle son carried out such an atrocity.

He said: ‘I just want the truth.’

Brahim’s brother Yassine. His brother Yassin, 38, said: ‘He bought new clothes and a mobile phone in France with the money he had earned working harvesting olives in Italy’

Brahim’s father Mohamed and his brother Yassine pictured outside the family home

Brahim’s father Mohamed and his brother Yassine pictured outside the family home

Struggling to make ends meet, Brahim Aouissaoui, is the eighth of ten children who grew up in the dusty streets on the outskirts of Sfax, an industrial town on the coast.

Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant, receives medical treatment after killing three worshippers

He could not find regular employment but worked as a bicycle mechanic and in an olive press before turning his hand to selling contraband untaxed petrol to passing motorists.

On 25 September he boarded an illegal migrant boat to the Italian island of Lampedusa – one of tens of thousands of poverty-stricken Africans who make the dangerous crossing into Europe every year.

It comes as it emerged that Aouissaoui spent up to two days in the city plotting his murderous attack at the city’s Notre Dame cathedral.

Anti-terrorist police made two further arrests in and around the port city on Saturday, bringing the total number of Islamist suspects in custody to four.

Meanwhile investigators believe Aouissaoui arrived in Nice some 48 hours before the attack, after analysis of CCTV film from around the city, the Nice Matin newspaper reported.

The 21-year-old Tunisian sent a picture of the church to relatives back in North Africa the night before the attack with a cryptic message that he planned to ‘sleep’ there.

Brahim al-Aouissaoui, 21, beheaded a 60-year-old woman, slit the throat of sexton Vincent Loques, 55, and stabbed mother-of-three Simone Barreto Silva, 44, to death at Nice Notre-Dame Basilica on Thursday morning.  

He was shot 14 times, tasered, and remains in hospital in critical condition.    

Simone Barreto Silva, a 44-year-old Brazil-born mother of three was one of the victims of an attack on a church in Nice on Thursday. The former samba dancer is pictured here with Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho 

Nice terror attack victim Nadine Devillers, 60, is pictured in a photograph before the horrific incident on Thursday

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 Brahim Aoussaoui attacked the church

Married Nadine Devillers, 60, was the first person attacked by Tunisian knifeman Brahim Aoussaoui, 21, who slit her throat near the baptismal font. 

After he tried to decapitate Devillers, Aoussaoui hacked 54-year-old sacristan Vincent Loques to death as he prepared for the first Mass of the day.  

Brazilian-born Simone Barreto Silva, 44, was then stabbed multiple times but managed to escape the church, running to a nearby burger bar where she succumbed to her injuries. The mother-of-three’s last words to paramedics were: ‘Tell my children that I love them’.

On arrival, French police shot Aoussaoui 14 times as he screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ – God is greatest in Arabic – a phrase he kept shouting even after being sedated and put into an ambulance.