The second attacker who cut the throat of a village priest in an attack claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant named on Wednesday as Abdel Malik P., a 19-year-old from Savoie, south-eastern France.

A source close to the police investigation told the Telegraph it was "highly likely" that Malik was the second terrorist.

Isil released a video on Wednesday night purportedly showing the Malik and Adel Kermiche, identified on Tuesday as the second attacker, pledging allegiance.

An identity card belonging to Abdel Malik P. was found during a search of the home of Adel Kermiche’s parents on Tuesday.

Police also searched an address in Aix-les-Bains, a town in Savoie, as part of the investigation into the Normandy church attack, the regional newspaper Dauphiné Libéré reported.

Abdel Malik P. was known to the security services as having been radicalised although he had no convictions.

It is believed his fingerprints were on record. He is also believed to have tried to travel to Syria.

Kermiche had been turned back from Syria and was under police supervision, wearing an electronic tag that was switched off between 8:30am and 12:30pm to allow Kermiche to leave the house - during the time the attack took place.

French police and intelligence services were last night under intense scrutiny, after it emerged that Mr Kermiche was known to have been radicalised and was on a watch list as a potential threat to national security.

It was also last night reported that the church had been on a “hit list” found on a 24-year-old Algerian jihadi who had planned attacks last year in a Parisian suburb. Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer sciences student, was arrested by French police who are investigating whether he was directed to carry out attacks on churches by Isil.