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. Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the Journal du dimanche newspaper that authorities “now know that the killer radicalized very quickly”.
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Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, smashed a 19-tonne truck into a mass of people as the traditional July 14 national day fireworks celebration was ending in the French Riviera city.
Opposition parties have accused Hollande’s government of not doing enough to combat terrorism.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the investigation had not yet found evidence linking attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel to terrorist networks.
Among the six is a 38-year-old Albanian, who was arrested on Sunday morning on suspicion of supplying the pistol that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel used to fire at police trying to block his route.
France began three days of national mourning on Saturday, in memory of those who died in the terror attack.
Apparently taken days before he drove into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the southern French city, the image also shows an unidentified man sitting on the other side of the cab. Cazeneuve said 59 people were still hospitalized after Thursday’s attack, 29 of them in intensive care, out of 308 people injured overall.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said only 35 bodies have been definitively identified so far, carried out by specialists with a judicial official present.
Neighbours have described Bouhlel as a violent loner who liked to drink, lift weights and go salsa dancing.
“It’s bad to say but we need a stronger prime minister with laws against radicalism”.
The text was sent at around 10.27pm, before Bouhlel slammed into the Bastille Day parade only to be eventually stopped by police gun shots.
Tunisian security sources have told the BBC he visited Tunisia frequently, most recently eight months ago.
The perpetrator was acting in response to the group’s call for attacks on citizens of countries taking part in an global coalition fighting IS in its Iraqi and Syrian territories, the statements said.
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An eyewitness said she saw people hanging on to the lorry in a desperate bid to stop the killing spree.
