The 31-year old Tunisian, who lived locally, zigzagged through a Bastille Day crowd for almost two kilometres on the waterfront of the French Riviera city on Thursday night – it was eventually stopped when police shot dead the driver.
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French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve yesterday called on young citizens to become reservists and help boost security forces in the wake of the country’s latest terror attack.
Earlier:French police have arrested three people in Nice in connection with their investigation into the Bastille day attack that killed at least 84 people.
Officials said that people questioned by police had indicated that Bouhlel had undergone a rapid transformation from someone with no apparent interest in religion.
The Nice incident was the third major attack in France in 19 months, a spate that includes the shootings at the office of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in January 2015 and coordinated attacks around the capital in November 2015.
But Cazeneuve said he had been radicalized “very rapidly”, the Washington Post reported.
“He carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State”.
Update 10.35 am: The man who drove a truck into a crowd in the French city of Nice is a “soldier” of Islamic State, the group’s media outlet said.
Bouhlel had used his credit card and driving licence to collect the vehicle on Monday, say reports (Picture: Mail online) Bouhlel is believed to have used his credit card and driving licence to collect the vehicle on Monday from Saint-Laurent-du-Var, which is around 30 minutes west of Nice.
He said the family took Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel to a doctor who prescribed medication to counter his depression.
French President Francois Hollande is expected to chair crisis talks later on Saturday and Sunday.
“We are confronted by people who are committing violent acts without even being trained or having any weapons”, Le Drian said, adding that the country needs to rethink its defense strategy against such attacks.
Prosecutors said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, drove the lorry 2km (1.2 miles) along the promenade targeting people.
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He and his wife had three children, but she had demanded a divorce after a “violent argument”, one neighbour said. He also confirmed the attacker “had not been known to the intelligence services because he did not stand out.by being linked with radical Islamic ideology”.
