Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has defended the government, saying it has bolstered security notably by sending thousands of troops into the streets.
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More than 200 people were also wounded in the carnage wrought by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel on the seafront of this southern Mediterranean city. The identities of four of them were not known, but neighbors told The Associated Press that Bouhlel’s estranged wife had been taken away Friday by police.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though authorities say they have not found signs the extremist group directed it. “So that makes it necessary for us to maintain the fight overseas, to continue to fight Daesh where they are, and to continue to fight Daesh on our own territory, while ensuring the safety of French people”, said Cazeneuve, using the term Daesh to identify the organization more commonly known as the Islamic State group.
Paris prosecutor said that the truck driver had violent images “linked to radical Islam” on his computer.
Then the attack took place, which caused a public outcry against the government’s possible inability to deal with terrorist threats and protect the French people.
The latest arrests, of an Albanian couple who have not been identified, were on Sunday morning, French judicial sources said.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, the government’s spokesman Stephane Le foll said President Francois Hollande was considering a six-month extension of emergency state in response to the demand of right-wing lawmakers.
The country’s health minister Marisol Touraine said 18 of the victims in hospital were in a life-threatening condition. “But if I had done my job badly, he might be in prison, and he may have never done what he did”, he said.
Valls also said suspected islamist Reda Kriket, arrested near Paris in March with an arsenal of weapons, had “definitely” been planning to target the Euro 2016 football tournament in France, which wrapped up without an attack just over a week ago. Pained and outraged epitaphs have been written in blue maker on stones placed where police shot him dead.
A woman asked if she could put a yellow potted plant there, unaware of the significance of the spot.
“Are you defending him?” the man said, incredulously.
France has stepped up its security measures further in the wake of the atrocity, but many in the city said they had always been used to a visible military presence.
It what appears to be a outcome of the heavy military pressure from the US -led coalition in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State has urged more attacks beyond the region against its foes.
US Ambassador Jane D. Hartley was in Nice on Monday, where she visited an injured American and met with American families who had lost loved ones.
After Thursday’s attack, a state of emergency imposed across France after the November attacks in Paris was extended by three months and military and police reservists were to be called up.
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A special church service was being held at a Nice cathedral Sunday in honour of the victims.
