The man who killed 84 Bastille Day revellers in the French city of Nice by driving a truck into a crowd had been radicalised recently and quickly, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said, as a further 18 victims fought for their lives.
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The Islamic State (IS) group said the Tunisian driver was one of its “soldiers” but investigators say that while he showed a recent interest in jihadist activity, there was no evidence he acted on behalf of IS.
The 31-year-old Tunisian on Thursday slammed a 19-tonne lorry into crowds of people, including many children, who had come to watch the Bastille Day fireworks on Nice’s waterfront.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said five suspects now in custody are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack in the southern French city.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has defended the government, saying it has bolstered security notably by sending thousands of troops into the streets.
In the two weeks prior to the attack Bouhlel carried out near-daily internet searches for IS propaganda videos and readings from the Koran, Molins said.
While some relatives and friends described the delivery driver as someone who drank heavily and never attended the local mosque, others questioned by investigators spoke of “a recent shift to radical Islam”, said a police source.
The ministry said the man’s wife and seven-year-old boy who were also wounded in the July 14 attack were doing well at a hospital in Nice and receiving help from the Romanian consulate in Marseille.
French President Francois Hollande is defending his government’s military actions against Islamic extremists – even while acknowledging they are part of the reason extremists have repeatedly attacked his country.
Two more people, a man and a woman close to Bouhlel, were arrested in Nice early on Sunday and another person in the afternoon.
Nice’s famous Promenade des Anglais, the site of the slaughter, is gradually reopening and becoming a shrine to the dead. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy accused the government of bad policies that he says failed to prevent three major attacks in the past 18 months.
Meanwhile, a l’Opinion report on Monday said that at least two potential terrorist attacks had been thwarted during Euro 2016.
Officials have begun returning remains to the families, though 13 of the 84 who died have yet to be identified, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor’s office says the identification of the 49 bodies is being carried out according to an accelerated procedure established after the November 13 attacks on Paris, using DNA or medical records provided by families.
Similar gatherings were held across the country, with the minute’s silence accompanied by the ringing of church bells.
Prosecutor Francois Molins’ office, which oversees terrorism investigations, opened a judicial inquiry Thursday into a battery of charges for the suspects, including complicity to murder and possessing weapons tied to a terrorist enterprise. His father, in Tunisia, said his son did not pray or fast for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. So I will use strong words: “it will be us or them”, he said.
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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On Thursday, the Liberation newspaper reported that the place where Bouhlel had entered the Nice promenade at the beginning of his deadly rampage had only been guarded by one municipal police auto.
