Pained and outraged epitaphs are now written in blue maker on stones placed where police shot him dead.
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The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the July 14 terrorist attack in Nice, France, which killed 84 people and injured more than 200, in a statement released on Saturday, July 16.
French weekly Journal du Dimanche sited investigators as saying Bouhlel emptied his bank account, sold his vehicle and told friends about his radicalization.
The criticism comes as France’s National Assembly finalized the extension of the state of emergency, a security measure that’s been in place since the November 13 Paris attacks that left 130 dead and were claimed by the Islamic State group.
Bouhlel was shot to death by police after he barreled down the crowded Promenade des Anglais for nearly a mile on Friday, crushing and hitting people who had gathered to watch fireworks, CNN reported.
“Daesh gives unstable individuals an ideological kit that allows them to make sense of their acts. this is probably what happened in Nice’s case”, Mr Valls said.
The Nice truck attacker staked out the seafront for two days before striking, it emerged on Sunday as investigators pieced together details of the Islamic State-claimed massacre and questioned possible accomplices.
Eighteen of the 85 people still in hospital are in a life-threatening condition, the country’s health minister said on Sunday.
Five suspects are to appear in court shortly for alleged links to the driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian who was living in Nice.
Speaking at the debate in the National Assembly, he said France would have to learn to live with the threat.
Bouhlel scouted out the promenade twice before the attack – on Tuesday and Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office told NBC News. The attacker was later identified as Mohamed Bouhlel, a 31-year-old man of Tunisian origin who had been a career criminal before becoming rapidly radicalised.
“They wanted to attack the unity of the French nation”.
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As the government faces mounting criticism from right-wing opposition groups over its security policy, the prime minister, Manuel Valls, said new attacks would occur as France faced a long-term issue of terrorism. His father said Bouhlel had problems from 2002 to 2004 “that caused a nervous breakdown”.
