The film, starring British actor Idris Elba, was released in the country last Wednesday, a day before Tunisian Mohamed Bouhlel drove his rented truck into a crowd on the promenade.
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However, there has been no overt evidence linking him to the Islamic State group, which on Saturday claimed the attack.
The French administrative department of Alpes-Maritimes, of which Nice is the capital, said at the end of a year ago that 236 individuals had been monitored over several months as part of a surveillance programme and that it was tracking five new individuals every week.
With scores still hospitalized, France’s health minister is visiting Nice.
Fellow Tunisians in Nice said they hoped the attack wouldn’t reflect badly on them.
Although only the lone attacker has been identified, French police said they are still searching for suspects.
Several people have told police that Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, had shown signs of being religious, despite previous reports from those who knew him that he smoked, drank and never went to the mosque, said a source close to the investigation.
As France began three days of national mourning Saturday, Nice’s seaside Promenade des Anglais slowly and painfully came back to life.
“He had behavioral problems with his parents at that time. he was very aggressive with them”, Hamouda said.
“There were so many bodies here”.
People take a moment of silence to pay tribute to the victims of the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, at Spanish parliament in Madrid, Spain, July 15, 2016.
Also today, the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist communications, said that the IS had featured its claim of responsibility in a news bulletin on its radio station, Al Bayan, and that it “threatened that “crusader states” are not safe”.
“Even when Daesh is not the organiser, Daesh breathes life into the terrorist spirit that we are fighting”, he said, using an Arabic name for IS.
The French leader met with security officials in the Elysee palace to consider what to do next. A state of emergency in place since 130 people were killed in and around Paris last November is to be extended for another three months.
The reservists called up by France include 9,000 military police officers and 3,000 regular police officers, BBC reported, adding that 120,000 police and military personnel have already been deployed across the country. He said France will strengthen its roles in Syria and Iraq. “For two and a half years now we have suffered from these attacks…”Our society has gone mad”.
Molins said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had had various brushes with the law since 2010 for making threats, theft and violence, including a conviction in March this year for which he was given a six-month suspended sentence. Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, called the attack “horrible” and said he was postponing plans to announce his vice presidential running mate on Friday.
She said the truck continued through the promenade, which is a pedestrian street, until the driver was killed by police. Prosecutors say the hire contract would have expired on July 13.
The truck’s windshield was punctured by a volley of bullets, possibly fired by police, but some witnesses said the driver opened fire before he set out on his fatal ride along a two-kilometer stretch of pavement.
It is also true that if we want to live in a free society then no security infrastructure can be 100 per cent flawless.
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France’s third major terrorist attack in the past 18 months has left Paris fending off criticism over security failures and scrambling to reassure its citizens they are protected. In total, 6 people remain in custody relating to the attack that IS has claimed.
