They include a 40-year-old whom Bouhlel had known for a long time and a 38-year-old Albanian, detained along with his girlfriend and suspected of providing the attacker with an automatic pistol.
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French lawmakers on Wednesday approved a six-month rollover of emergency rule in the wake of last week’s truck attack on the city of Nice, the third deadly assault in 18 months for which the Islamist State militant group has claimed responsibility.
The attack plunged France into new grief and fear just eight months after gunmen killed 130 people in Paris.
The state of emergency now in place across France was implemented on the evening of November 13, last year, when “Islamic State”-affiliated militants launched several attacks across the capital Paris, leaving 130 people dead”.
His comments come after French newspaper Liberation said Cazeneuve lied about the whereabouts of the national police officers and cars and accused French authorities of being lacking transparency. Jean-Yves Garino, the lawyer of the estranged wife, said on BFM TV that he used to beat her, and that their only contacts where his occasional visits to see their three children.
That version of events was disputed by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
New Zealanders have told of being near the attack but none have been identified as injured or killed.
With scores still hospitalized, France’s health minister is visiting Nice.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, in the French region of Savoie to inaugurate an engineering project, joined a chorus of officials defending themselves against the charges, and made a public show of support for Cazeneuve in whom, he said, he had full trust. Hollande has said that France will strengthen its roles in Syria and Iraq, saying, “We will continue striking those who attack us on our own soil”. Valls said only that authorities “now know that the killer radicalized very quickly”.
The Paris prosecutor’s office on Saturday said police had arrested a total of five people believed to be linked to Bouhlel.
The IS said one of its “soldiers” carried out the attack “in response to calls to target nations of coalition states that are fighting [IS]”.
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Many families are angry that they couldn’t find information about missing loved ones, and many are angry at police for not preventing the deadly attack despite France being under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks previous year in Paris.
