More than 300 people were taken to hospital after the attacks, of those 85 remain in hospital and 18 people are in a life-threatening condition, according to the French health minister Marisol Touraine.
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Six people were in custody today including a 38-year-old Albanian suspected of providing Lahouaiej-Bouhlel with a pistol he used to fire at police during the attack.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead after zigzagging a 19-tonne truck through a crowd of tourists, locals and families enjoying a fireworks display in the Riviera city of Nice on Bastille Day. The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it’s unclear whether Bouhlel had concrete links to the group.
The Islamic State has called on sympathizers to target civilians in the countries that make up the coalition – calls that have been answered with a deadly result, particularly in France.
Neighbors described the attacker as volatile, prone to drinking and womanizing and in the process of getting a divorce. His father, in Tunisia, said his son did not pray or fast for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
But French authorities believe that may have changed.
And French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said it was “without doubt” that IS was involved in the attack.
The truck attack in Nice, France, has shattered the Marzouk family.
“I turned round and I saw the truck which was crashing into the crowd and bodies flying into the air”, the Nice resident said.
“It’s hard to prevent a disenfranchised young individual from opening a laptop, finding these groups, and getting sucked into the narrative”, Julianne Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the Monitor. A special church service was being held at a Nice cathedral on Sunday in honour of the victims.
Approximately 2245: Soon after the firework show ends the attacker enters the Promenade des Anglais in the truck and drives down a stretch of about 2km (1.5 miles) facing the “Vieille Ville” old quarter where numerous victims were killed. Joggers, bikers and sunbathers populated the pedestrian walkway along the glistening Mediterranean Sea, where well-wishers placed flowers, French flags, stuffed animals and candles.
Many questioned how the attacker could have swept past police checkpoints at a prominent event that clearly demanded high security.
The woman was released Sunday.
Melissa described the neighbourhood as very safe and calm, and said she had never been harassed in the time she had lived there with her baby daughter, but the area was referred to in the media as “rundown” and “poor”.
“When you are talking after the fact, you can always find solutions”, he said.
French police made further arrests and the government defended its security precautions as investigators continued to work on figuring out whether the Nice truck driver, who mowed down a crowd of revelers on Bastille Day, acted alone or had accomplices.
Valls, in the newspaper interview, defended the government’s actions but warned that more lives will be lost to this kind of violence.
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“He called several times a day”.
