Paris prosecutor François Molins said Monday that the truck driver who killed 84 people here last week had expressed support for the Islamic State and searched online for information about the Orlando attack on a gay nightclub.
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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.
The driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, plowed the truck 1.3 miles through the crowd of spectators on Promenade des Anglais, littering the palm-lined street with bodies and sending hundreds more fleeing in terror.
All five were in contact with Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the days before the attack, investigators said.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says security forces foiled what could have been a “particularly deadly” terrorist attack shortly before Euro 2016.
“While there are no elements in the investigation to suggest at this stage an allegiance to Islamic State nor links with individuals from the group. he (Bouhlel) showed a certain recent interest in radical jihadist movements”, Molins said.
France fell silent on Monday for the victims of the Nice truck attack, but the mourning was overshadowed by politicians tearing into each other over the massacre.
Hollande said that an internal police investigation, launched Thursday by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in a bid to diffuse criticism over a perceived lack of transparency, would evaluate how the police handled the attacks.
Before and after a minute of silence held to pay respects to the 84 dead, numerous thousands gathered in the south-coast resort city of Nice chanted “resign, resign” at Manuel Valls, the Socialist prime minister.
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. Among them was Bouhlel’s ex-wife, who was reportedly released from custody Sunday morning, according to authorities speaking to local media.
“I was there [on Thursday] and didn’t see police”.
Thousands of people gather to observe a minute of silence. So I will use strong words: “it will be us or them”, he said.
His family say that the 31-year-old was not very religious – often eating pork, getting drunk and taking drugs, as well as not observing Ramadan.
The number of French people who believe Hollande is up to the task of tackling terrorism plunged to 33 percent after the attack in Nice, from confidence ratings of 50 percent or so in the wake of the two other big attacks in early and late 2015.
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Pradal said the attack in Nice, which follows two mass killings by Islamic extremists in Paris past year, shows that his city represents a particular target for extremists because of its long history as a Mediterranean melting pot that is tolerant of all nationalities and religions.
