GETTY Pressure gows on President Hollande

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Abdelmalik Petitjean, 19, “easily” passed security checks to work at Chambery airport near his home in Aix-les-Bains in the French Alps. He worked there from December to April after getting his high school baccalaureate. Chambery Airport handles 250,000 passengers a year, many of them Britons heading for the ski slopes. His job gave him access to the luggage of thousands of travellers.

But in the spring Petitjean quit his job and in June was caught by Turkish intelligence trying to join IS in Syria. Earlier this week he and fellow IS fanatic Adel Kermiche, also 19, stormed into a church near Rouen and slit the throat of 86-year-old priest Father Jacques Hamel before being gunned down by police. It is the latest security lapse to hit France which is reeling from a spate of IS terror attacks. Both fanatics were known to the security services and Kermiche had been released early from jail after twice trying to join IS in Syria. He was electronically tagged and supposed to be living under curfew with his parents.

GETTY People light candles at the place de la Republique's monument in Paris, on July 26

Last week Petitjean’s photograph was circulated with a warning that he was back in France and ready to strike. But he slipped under the security radar and on Tuesday took part in the video murder of Fr Jacques before the altar of the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. The French Government has also been accused of having inadequate security in Nice on Bastille Day when an IS fanatic murdered 84 by driving into packed crowds in a lorry. After November’s IS attack on Paris in which 130 were murdered, one of perpetrators slipped through police roadblocks. And today sources close to the investigation into the Rouen atrocity said Petitjean had no difficulty passing security vetting for his job at Chambery.

GETTY A woman mourns in front of the house of Father Jacques Hamel on July 27

A source said: “Petitjean had no trouble getting through a police investigation and psychological evaluation. “He was considered to be a hardworking, friendly young man who did not pose any danger to passengers or others using the airport. He got through the police investigation easily.” ISIS today released a second video in which Petitjean called for more attacks on France. Wearing a white-and-green top, he spoke to the camera in French with Arabic subtitles.

GETTY 19-year-old Abdelmalik Petitjean was one of the terrorists

He told his “brothers”: “Go out with a knife, whatever is needed. Attack them, kill them en masse.” Earlier this week IS released video of Petitjean and Kermiche pledging allegiance to them. French prime minister Manuel Valls, who is under pressure to resign, said the anti-terrorism judges who let Kermiche out of prison early with the tag should not be blamed.

PH Petitjean “easily” passed security checks to work at Chambery airport