Isil claimed responsibility Saturday for the attack by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel who used a hired lorry to kill at least 84 people in a rampage during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice.
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The French authorities have yet to produce evidence that 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, shot dead by police, had any actual links to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Inspections of Bouhlel’s computer and phone revealed brutal images “linked to radical Islam” and he had a “clear, recent interest” in radicalism, Molins said at a news conference, according to Agence France Presse. Fifty-nine remain hospitalized, and 29 are in intensive-care units, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced.
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.
But he noted that “the Islamic State and jihadism has become a kind of refuge for some unstable people who are at the end of their rope and decide they can redeem their screwed-up lives” by linking it to a mission. So I will use strong words: “it will be us or them”, he said.
While previous attacks saw grand displays of national unity, any semblance of cohesion quickly unravelled after the Nice massacre and main opposition leader Nicolas Sarkozy joins a long line of opposition politicians who have criticised the government.
“Lies debase public debate… the government has nothing to hide”, Mr Valls said.
Though there is no evidence Bouhlel was working alongside Isis in carrying out the Bastille Day attack, his uncle, Sadok, has claimed his nephew was indoctrinated about two weeks ago by a member of Isis in Nice.
Besides the Albanian, six other people were being held over the carnage.
It’s also important to remember that terrorism attacks scare us all (including adults), but this is exactly what the terrorists want – to make people feel terror. Of those, 18, including a child, were still in life-threatening condition, Health Minister Marisol Touraine told reporters on a visit to the city. The Local reported Cazeneuve would say only that Bouhlel experienced radicalization.
Many families are angry that they couldn’t find information about missing loved ones, and many are angry at police for not preventing the deadly attack despite France being under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks previous year in Paris.
On the second day of national mourning, the Russian Orthodox Church in Nice held an emotional mass for the victims.
Thursday’s attack came just over a week after a French parliamentary inquiry criticised numerous failings by the intelligence services following extremist attacks last January and November.
The minute of silence was observed across France at midday on Monday, a now grimly familiar ritual after the third major terror attack in 18 months on French soil.
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Mr. Cazeneuve called for volunteers to boost security forces who have already been reinforced and on high alert under an eight-month state of emergency.
