Nearly three days after the deadly truck attack in Nice that killed 84 people and injured more than 200, the search is ongoing for a young USA student who has not been seen since Thursday night.
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On Thursday Tunisian national Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was killed by police after driving a delivery truck for 2 kilometres through crowds of people along Nice’s main promenade as a fireworks display to celebrate Bastille Day was coming to an end.
Bouhlel became rapidly radicalized and hadn’t shown up on any anti-terrorist intelligence radar, said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
French officials could not confirm Monday that attacker Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel had been approached by an Algerian recruiter, saying that the investigation is ongoing.
French media are reporting there is CCTV footage that suggests Bouhlel was doing test runs with a truck along the Nice promenade in the two days leading up to the attack.
The psychiatrist, Chemceddine Hamouda, said Bouhlel’s parents brought him to his clinic in Msaken in August 2004. “He carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting the Islamic State”.
The terrorist responsible for killing dozens of people in Nice reportedly used dating apps to find men and women – despite his apparent allegiance to ISIS. His estranged wife was released Sunday after police questioned her.
Prosecutors said only 35 victims have been officially identified as they take painstaking measures to avoid errors of identification seen during the Paris attacks last November.
Meanwhile, a man and a woman were held in Nice on Sunday morning.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that 85 remain hospitalized, 18 of whom are in life-threatening condition.
In Nice, many people were still desperately waiting for news of their loved ones. “We are now facing individuals who are responding positively to the messages issued by the Islamic State without having had any special training and without having access to weapons that allow them to commit mass murder”.
The attack came hours after police removed four vans that had blocked Promenade des Anglais for a military parade earlier in the day, according to The Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom.
Still, the message was heard, prompting the security announcement later from Cazeneuve.
With presidential and parliamentary elections less than a year away, French opposition politicians are increasing pressure and seizing on what they described as security failings that made it possible for the truck to career 2 km (1.5 miles) through large crowds before it was finally halted.
Earlier this month a French parliamentary committee called for a major overhaul of the country’s intelligence services following the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks past year.
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After crisis talks in Paris, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recalled that IS had recently repeated calls to supporters to “directly attack the French, Americans, wherever they are and by whatever means”.
