While they all said he had always been indifferent to religion, some described a recent and very rapid conversion to radical Islam, the official said.
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The prosecutor spoke hours after thousands of people massed on the waterfront promenade where the attack took place for a moment of silence.
Late Monday evening, mourners formed a human chain to remove candles, flowers and other mementos honoring the victims of the attack, when Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel drove through crowds watching fireworks.
The prosecutor said the investigation made “notable advances” since the Bastille Day attack by Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had been living legally in Nice for years.
Francis then offered “a paternal and fraternal embrace for all of Nice’s inhabitants and all of France”, and invited those in the square to join him in silent prayer for the 84 Nice victims and their families.
Two French-speaking jihadists are shown in the video, praising the attacker behind the Nice massacre, and threatening to “intensify” attacks against France before they behead two captives accused of “spying”. A second picture shows him standing by the 19-tonne white lorry, grinning for the camera, alongside a man wearing a Paris Saint-Germain football shirt.
NICE, France It took possibly just 15 minutes for a man to carry out an attack that killed at least 84 people, ten of them children, and injure more than 200 in the French city of Nice on July 14.
Molins says bulk of killing is along a 1.9 km stretch from number 11 to 147 of the Promenade des Anglais, where the four lanes of roadway were closed to traffic in each direction and full of pedestrians. Numerous dead and 308 injured were children.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, jeered by crowds at a remembrance ceremony on Monday and criticized by political opponents over the attack, called for national unity as he presented the emergency rule bill overnight. Buildings stood silent across the country.
The bill to be debated in parliament on Tuesday night would also grant police and spy services greater powers to dig into suspects’ computers and mobile phone communications.
Another student said he saw the attack from the balcony of his friends’ flat. He said he learned about the Algerian from extended family members who live in Nice.
ISIL claimed responsibility for the carnage although there is no evidence that the killer had pledged allegiance to the group.
The Amaq news agency affiliated with IS said that he “was one of the soldiers of Islamic State”.
He had no record of making militant statements and was not known to the intelligence services, the minister said.
Over the weekend, the Hollande government – and particularly Cazeneuve – had come under fire from politicians including former president and leader of the Republicains opposition group, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Speaking on French television, Sarkozy said, “Democracy must not be weak, nor simply commemorate”. French warplanes have been involved in the operation in Iraq and to a lesser degree in Syria.
“Mohamed didn’t pray, didn’t go to the mosque and ate pork”, said the uncle, a 69-year-old retired teacher, in the driver’s hometown of Msaken, Tunisia.
Cazeneuve says: “These links for now have not been established by the investigation”.
About 85 people are still hospitalized in the wake of Thursday’s attack, with 29 patients in intensive care, said Marisol Touraine, French minister of social affairs and health.
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More than 80 people died when he ploughed his vehicle into people celebrating Bastille Day on Thursday (local time).
