Analysis of Bouhlel’s cell phone uncovered photos, texts and phone calls that indicated he started planning last Bastille Day, Molins said, adding that Bouhlel took photos of fireworks on July 14, 2015 an in August 2015, and centered the photos around the crowds watching them.
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A week ago, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel plowed a semi-trailer truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing more than 80.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said that after what he described as “significant advances” in the investigation, it was clear the attack had been premeditated for several months.
The terrorist group Islamic State (Isis) claimed responsibility for the massacre and said Bouhlel was one of its “soldiers”. But prosecutors said information from Bouhlel’s phone suggested he could have been preparing an attack as far back as May 2015. “They have brought in the soldiers of Allah”.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the Nice beachfront when driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel sped past a barricade and ran over 84 people.
“The municipal police (under the authority of the mayor’s office) are supposed to control traffic, take precautionary measures and provide assistance, but they are not there to ensure security, especially when there is such a large crowd of people”, the politician said.
An internal police investigation into the security measures has been launched, and President Francois Hollande is holding a special security meeting Friday.
Bouhlel was also reported to have taken a photo in May, previous year of a brief about the drug Captagon, which Molins said was “used by some jihadists responsible for attacks”.
The probe, which involves more than 400 investigators, confirms the attack was premediated, the prosecutor said.
Hollande said Friday the equipment will be in place next month, as part of French efforts to boost its participation in the US -led fight against IS.
The Nice assault was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months, after the jihadist carnage in Paris in November and the shootings at a satirical magazine and kosher supermarket in January 2015.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by police and all of the names mentioned in phone messages recovered by investigators are covered by the four men – including Tunisian Chokri C – and one women who have been charged.
People walk past flowers left in tribute at a makeshift memorial to the victims of the Bastille Day truck attack near the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, on Thursday. “There is no place for polemics, there is only place for truth and transparency”, he said.
On Thursday, parliament finalised the adoption of a bill extending the emergency laws for a fourth time, after it was toughened up by the rightwing-dominated Senate.
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Islamic State have released two videos calling for more acts of terrorism to be carried out in France in retaliation for the nation’s involvement in conducting airstrikes against the terrorist group, and called Nice attacker Bouhlel an “inspired Muslim”.
