Eighty-four people were killed when Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a hired lorry through crowds gathered to celebrate Bastille Day on Thursday. Similar ceremonies were held across the country, accompanied by the ringing of church bells.
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“The fact that this attack occurred when security measures were supposedly in place makes this very different from previous attacks”, said Neil Greenberg, a professor of military mental health at King’s College London.
Mr Valls defended France’s record on attacks, saying security services had prevented 16 over three years, and said the modus operandi of cajoling unstable people into striking by whatever means possible was hard to combat.
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.
President Francois Hollande said the conclusions of the investigation will be known next week, speaking from Dublin where he was meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny about the British decision to leave the European Union.
Cazeneuve described the bitter debate as “shameful”.
The frustration of the French was writ large in some of the messages left among flowers and tributes on Nice’s seafront. “By saying this we are telling the truth to the French and tackling the threat with lucidity”, he said.
France, reeling from the second deadly terror attack in the space of eight months, has appealed to “all willing patriots” to join the security services.
The operation proceeded solemnly until a column led by police on horseback reached a pile of garbage and rubbish heaped on the site where police shot to death the attacker.
“There are concerns about whether the Muslim community will be used as a scapegoat, which could increase alienation and ultimately drive more recruitment into the radicals’ cause”, said Andrew Silke, director of terrorism studies at the University of East London.
He had scouted out the promenade before the attack, CCTV footage showed, and he is said to have sent texts to possible accomplices asking for more weapons.
Another selfie showed the Tunisian-born murderer gazing into his cellphone camera while giving the finger as he sat behind the wheel of the truck with a pal next to him. Although they have not put forth specific evidence, French officials say Lahouaiej Bouhlel appeared to have taken the path to extremism very shortly before the attack. More than 200 people were injured.
At least 10 children and adolescents were among the dead in Nice as well as tourists from the US, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland and Germany.
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Eighty-five people were still being treated in hospital on Sunday, 18 of them in critical condition.
