Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, who oversees terrorism investigations, said by all accounts Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel drank, ate pork and had an “unbridled sex life”.
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However, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls confirmed that investigators believe the attacker had bee radicalised recently, with ISIS-affiliated groups recruiting him as a “soldier” of their Caliphate. “So we must still be prudent with what we say on that subject”, Cazeneuve told RTL France.
Similar gatherings were held across the country, with the minute’s silence accompanied by the ringing of church bells.
French authorities provided details that suggested the attack was carefully premeditated.
With flowers in their hands and tears in their eyes, crowds stood on the rocky beach for several minutes looking towards the Promenade des Anglais, the road where the attack targeting Bastille Day celebrations occurred.
“I’ve always said the truth regarding terrorism: there is an ongoing war, there will be more attacks”.
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.
Eighty-five people were still being treated in hospital on Sunday, 18 of them in critical condition.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s estranged wife, who was detained on Friday, was released on Sunday.
A source close to the investigation told AFP that he had also sent a text message just before the attack in which he “expresses satisfaction at having obtained a 7.65-millimetre pistol and discusses the supply of other weapons”.
After a special security meeting, defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French forces in the US-led coalition struck IS targets again overnight and on Saturday. He noted that past attacks on Paris – including the January 2015 shootings at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and the coordinated November strikes that killed 130 people – seemed more targeted, and thus avoidable, compared with the random group of Nice residents and tourists engulfed in chaos late Thursday night. The man was “entirely unknown by the intelligence services, whether nationally or locally”, French prosecutor François Molins said.
French authorities arrested two additional suspects – a man and a woman – Sunday in connection with the terror attack that killed 84 last week. “So that makes it necessary for us to maintain the fight overseas, to continue to fight Daesh where they are, and to continue to fight Daesh on our own territory, while ensuring the safety of French people”, said Cazeneuve, using the term Daesh to identify the organization more commonly known as the Islamic State group.
Touraine said 18 patients remain “between life and death”, including one child.
Around 500 people in Nice have sought psychological support in the aftermath of the attack, she said.
Both the Germanwings pilot and the driver in Nice received treatment for psychological problems in the past. He is the third American killed in the Thursday attack. A father and son from Texas also died in the attack.
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CNN’s Margot Haddad and Will Ripley reported from Nice, and Euan McKirdy wrote from Hong Kong.
