“He wasn’t very nice… He was handsome, but his face was miserable”.
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She told reporters that Bouhlil had a “fixated look in his eyes”.
Rebab and Ibrahim Bouhlel said there was no sign of unusual behaviour or Islamist radicalisation when he called.
Police said those arrested were all males and not related to the driver of the truck, 31-year old Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel but were friends of the Tunisian-born migrant.
Speaking to journalists at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Cazeneuve said Saturday that the case demonstrated the “extreme difficulty of the fight against terrorism”.
A teddy bear sits with flowers and paper tributes near the scene of a truck attack in Nice, southern France, Saturday, July 16, 2016.
But when a truck driver drove at full speed into crowds on the Nice seafront during the Bastille Day fireworks display, killing 80 people and injuring hundreds more, it took nearly three hours for the instant alert to be issued by the app.
France is observing three days of national mourning in homage to the victims – although that hasn’t stopped politicians from sniping at each other over who bore responsibility for the failing to stop the attack. They were made in two different areas of Nice. France is heading into elections next year, and the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande is facing multiple challengers, from within his own Socialist Party, from the right-wing Republicans and from the far-right National Front.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed credit for Thursday’s terror attack in Nice, France, saying it was carried out by a “soldier” of the group.
They claim that Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel carried out the attacks in response to its call to target citizens of states involved in the coalition.
The statement did not name the attacker, and the language implied that he may have acted independently.
Records show that the 19-metric-ton (21-U.S.-ton) truck that was rammed through the seaside crowd in Nice was rented in the outskirts of the city on July 11 and was overdue on the night of the attack.
I.S. also claimed responsibility for November 13 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.
Investigators have described Lahouaiej-Bouhlel as a petty criminal who was known to law enforcement. Messages seeking further detail were not returned.
The veracity of the group’s claim couldn’t immediately be determined, but French officials didn’t dispute it. What is known publicly about Bouhlel so far suggests a troubled, angry, sometimes violent man with little interest in the group’s ultra-puritanical brand of Islam.
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The identities of most of those brought into custody were not clear.
