Authorities have yet to determine whether 31-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who carried out the attack, had links to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), as the militant group claims.
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Tunisian delivery man Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was able to drive a 19-tonne truck along a packed sea-front promenade that was cordoned off and mow down dozens of locals and foreigners before he was shot dead by police.
French president Francois Hollande said Friday that approximately 50 people were still in critical condition, and on Saturday French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve issued orders for “increased security” throughout the country, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, two more people have been arrested in connection with the tragedy. He said he had asked for police to be reinforced in Nice ahead of the fireworks display but was told there was no need. The official provided no details on their identities, and said five people detained previously remain in custody.
More than 200 people were injured in the assault. “They are also using the public perception that an attack like this seems to fit Islamic State”, Edwin Bakker, a professor at the Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, told Reuters.
“We will continue striking those who attack us on our own soil”, Hollande said.
Around 500 people in Nice have sought psychological support in the aftermath of the attack, she said.
The claim of responsibility came as French security chiefs met in Paris and as Nice’s seaside boulevard, the famous Promenade des Anglais, is slowly coming back to life. “They are absolutely exhausted after a year and a half of intense efforts to try and protect this country”, he said.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was booed on Monday before and after a moment of silence to remember the victims of last week’s attack in Nice, France.
The disruption to the film’s release comes after its original release dates in the United Kingdom and Germany were delayed in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.
The latest attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, has politicians tearing into each other, a far cry from the display of unity 18 months ago after the first strike against the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket.
Bouhlel, who had a history of violence and mental health problems, had walked into a van rental office and said: “I want the heaviest truck you have”. Garino said the woman, the mother of Bouhlel’s three children, had not been in contact with the attacker since they were in the middle of divorce proceedings.
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He also scouted several other sites in the city and gathered funds in order to rent a truck, which he hired on July 4. “We join the rest of the world in mourning and express our solidarity with France against terrorism, against what is fundamentally evil”, he said.
