The Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, the site of a vicious terror attack that left more than 80 people dead last Thursday, has reopened and visitors have been adorning makeshift memorials with flowers and candles and pausing for moments of silence.
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Numerous videos show the crowd loudly booing Mr Valls, with some shouting insults at the Prime Minister and calling for his resignation.
The government is scrambling to reassure a jittery population after the country’s third major attack in 18 months killed 84 people out celebrating Bastille Day.
Instead, he said, investigators found signs of a premeditated attack by a man who “showed a certain recent interest for radical jihadist movements”. Molins said that Bouhlel rented the 19-ton truck he used in the attack on July 4, paying 1,600 euros (about $1,770).
Mr Molins said Bouhlel had expressed support for Islamic State and researched the terror group online but there is no evidence he had any personal links with the organisation.
“We must remain united and focused because we must be strong in the face of this threat”, he said.
After the latest attack, the government called for volunteers to become reservists who can be called on to supplement the security forces – already on high alert under an eight-month-old state of emergency.
Prosecutors said the case was ongoing and have not confirmed whether Bouhlel was contacted by a n Algerian ISIS recruiter before he launched the attack, the Independent reports.
Investigators also found “very violent” images on his computer – of corpses; covers of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the target of a January 2015 attack in Paris that killed 12 people; and Osama bin Laden.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said only 35 bodies have been definitively identified so far.
Cazeneuve said Thursday that only local police, who are more lightly armed, were guarding the entrance to the Promenade des Anglais when Bouhlel drove his truck down it. Cazeneuve then launched an internal police investigation into the handling of the Nice attack.
France imposed emergency rules after the November 13 attacks in which Islamist militants killed 130 people in Paris, giving the police powers to search homes and place people under immediate house arrest without advance clearance from judges.
He was “entirely unknown by the intelligence services, whether nationally or locally”, French prosecutor Francois Molins said.
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Four men and one woman aged between 22 and 40 are due to appear before the court for links to Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel who ploughed a truck into the crowded promenade in Nice.
