The promenade in Nice where a truck driver drove into crowds watching the Bastille Day fireworks display, killing 84 and injuring 200, has reopened as France continues to bolster its defences against terrorism across the country.
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Experts say that Bouhlel would have moved in an environment where he would have been exposed to the extremist ideology preached by the Islamic State group and others.
The 31-year-old Tunisian father of three, who smashed a 19-ton truck into a crowd of Bastille Day revellers killing 84 people, was known to the police for a series of petty crime but never made it onto the radar of intelligence services.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said there was no evidence of Bouhlel’s allegiance to IS but a search of his computer “showed a clear, recent interest for the radical jihadist movement”.
The police said that, at the time of the attack, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was in possession of an automatic pistol, bullets, a fake automatic pistol and two replica assault rifles (a Kalashnikov and an M16), as well as an unarmed grenade.
A seventh person – Bouhlel’s estranged wife – has been released from custody.
Jocelyn Bouyssy, the director of CGR cinemas in France, which began showing the film on Wednesday, told Variety.com they had originally chose to keep showing the film when the option to pull it was given, but she has since complied with Studiocanal’s request “out of respect”.
Hours after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack Saturday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said authorities “now know that the killer radicalized very quickly”.
Brigitte Erbibou, a psychologist who has long worked in Nice, said Bouhlel’s reported lack of religious conviction may not have precluded a sudden embrace of extremism, noting that people who have resorted to violence in the past can apply that instinct in other situations.
The first three people arrested were detained after police special forces raided at least one address in Nice at 6am on Saturday.
But on the city’s famed Promenade des Anglais, passers-by piled garbage on the bloodstained spot where Bouhlel was killed.
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.
She said Stratton can not speak and does not remember the attack, “which is better”.
The man behind the Nice terror attack was a bisexual who used dating sites to find both men and women, according to reports.
“Jabeur has not supplied the photo he claims Bouhlel also sent him but said in it his brother seemed very happy and pleased, he was laughing a lot”.
“(IS) is encouraging individuals unknown to our services to stage attacks. that is without a doubt the case in the Nice attack”, he said Sunday. Valls has said there were no failures in Nice.
“I’ve always said the truth regarding terrorism: There is an ongoing war, there will be more attacks”.
Republicans leader and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, eyeing another run for the top job next year, has called for anyone showing signs of being radicalised to be forced to wear an electronic tag, placed under house arrest or kept in a detention centre.
Feelings are raw. numerous dead and injured were children watching a fireworks display with their families, and a sign posted around town demonstrates a strong feeling of solidarity, calling for blood donations and stuffed animals for injured children.
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During a visit to Nice yesterday, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said the 18, including one child, were in critical condition, while about 85 people were still in hospital.
