Mohsen Dali, an official with Tunisia's judiciary, has said that Brahim al-Aouissaoui, the Tunisian suspect in the deadly Nice attack, was arrested for violence and using a knife back in 2016.
The statement comes as the Tunisian Public Prosecutor's Office ordered to launch an investigation into the alleged existence of the so-called Al Mahi terror organisation and its possible involvement in the Nice attack, according to the state-run news agency TAP.
This followed French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin saying earlier in the day that he does not rule out more terrorist attacks on French territory as the country is engaged in a "war against Islamist ideology".
Darmanin told the Berlin-based station RTL Radio that France is "at war against an enemy that is both inside and outside", adding that the country needs "to understand that there have been and there will be other events such as these terrible attacks".
The minister echoed President Emmanuel Macron who told reporters on Thursday that France was "under terrorist attack again" after a fatal stabbing in Nice, and that the country would not give up its values due to an "Islamist terrorist attack".
The president also pledged to deploy 7,000 soldiers to protect key sites around the country as France's national security alert has been increased to the highest level.
The attack came less than two weeks after Paris-based teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by an attacker on 16 October after Paty showed Charlie Hebdo's caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in one of his classes on freedom of speech.
Cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are considered blasphemous by Muslims, and the publication of such cartoons led to a deadly shooting in Charlie Hebdo's office back in 2015, when 12 people were killed and 11 more injured as a result of the attack.