CAIRO/NICE, France Islamic State claimed responsibility for the truck attack on the French city of Nice on Saturday as French police arrested three people there in connection with the carnage that claimed the lives of at least 84 people.
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People who are susceptible to IS extremist organisation messages can be convinced without prior training to commit extremely brutal crimes, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told French news agency AFP on Saturday.
About 85 people remained hospitalized Sunday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said only 35 bodies have been definitively identified so far.
But he said it’s also “because France is fighting against terrorism, against fundamentalism, against fanaticism”.
Officials have yet to produce evidence that Bouhlel had any links to IS.
Rebab, Bouhlel’s sister, said her brother had not been in the habit of calling the family.
Dr. Raj Persaud, a consultant psychiatrist and professor at London’s Gresham College, said Bouhlel’s path toward violent extremism might have been longer than people around him noticed.
Investigators are trying to determine what motivated Bouhlel, how he carried out the attack, and how police and intelligence services missed the planning for it. It is the third mass-casualty attack in 18 months in France, after the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015, and the Paris attacks last November, which prompted President François Hollande to impose a state of emergency.
“Bring more weapons, bring five of them to C”, Bouhlel texted. He was killed by police after ramming his truck through crowds after a holiday fireworks display Thursday night.
The security official said Bouhlel sold his vehicle just before the attack, which appeared premeditated.
“What I know is that he didn’t pray, he didn’t go to the mosque, he had no ties to religion”, said the father, noting that Bouhlel didn’t respect the Islamic fasting rituals during the month of Ramadan.
The ministry said French authorities on Tuesday confirmed the man’s death.
“It seems that he was radicalised very quickly – in any case these are the elements that have come up from the testimony of the people around him”, Cazeneuve told reporters.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls faced some criticism and boos as he participated in an event of collective grief at the Monument du Centenaire near the Promenade des Anglias in the Riviera city of Nice. Some areas are still stained by blood.
Joggers, bikers and sunbathers cruised down the pedestrian walkway along the glistening Mediterranean Sea on Sunday, where well-wishers placed flowers, French flags, stuffed animals and candles for the victims.
The site is also becoming a platform for anger at the attacker.
Eyewitnesses say there was an exchange of gunfire in the aftermath of the incident before the driver was shot dead.
Jean-Pascal Padovani said his client had known Bouhlel casually and consumed drugs with him in recent months.
Many families are angry and frustrated that they couldn’t find information about their missing loved ones.
“We asked all cinemas to withdraw “Bastille Day” because some aspects of the film are not in line with the national mood”, said a spokeswoman for Studiocanal. The official describes the 37-year-old man as part of the attacker’s “entourage”. While the two Paris attacks were clearly linked to terror groups, until the ISIS claim on Twitter on Saturday, there was nothing tying Bouhlel to any broader network or beliefs.
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Valls defended the government’s actions but warned that more lives will be lost to this kind of violence.
