Islamic State claims responsibility for the Nice attack but a direct link between the suspect and the terrorist group is yet to emerge.
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Cazeneuve had also said Monday that a link between terrorist networks and the attacker who killed 84 people in the city of Nice had not yet been established. Cazeneuve said 59 people were still hospitalized after Thursday’s attack, 29 of them in intensive care, out of 308 people injured overall.
The makeshift anti-shrine lies just a metres from the spot where flowers, candles, teddy bears and messages have been placed for the dozens of people run over by Bouhlel as he careered through a crowd on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais on Thursday.
Before and after a minute of silence held to pay respects to the 84 dead, numerous thousands gathered in the south-coast resort city of Nice chanted “resign, resign” at Manuel Valls, the Socialist prime minister.
While previous attacks saw grand displays of national unity, there was no semblance of cohesion after the Nice massacre, with Sarkozy joining a long line of opposition politicians who have accused the government of not doing enough to protect the French.
Gathers chanted “resign, resign”, with others also calling for French President Francois Hollande to step down.
The paper quoted Nice police officer Yves Bergerat, who said the guns and bullets of the local force aren’t even equipped “to puncture the tires”, let alone shatter the windshield of a truck that size.
Pradal said the attack in Nice, which follows two mass killings by Islamic extremists in Paris a year ago, shows that his city represents a particular target for extremists because of its long history as a Mediterranean melting pot that is tolerant of all nationalities and religions. French authorities have been looking for possible accomplices to Bouhlel.
The state of emergency has been in place since the Paris attacks in November, and the extension would see the measures – which give the police extra powers to carry out searches and place people under house arrest – remain in place until the end of January 2017.
The ministry said it had received confirmation of their deaths late Monday from French officials but it did not identify them or provide any details.
Germany’s foreign minister says two students and a teacher from a school in Berlin died in the Bastille Day attacks on the French Riviera.
Five days after the attack, 70 people are still hospitalised, 19 in critical condition.
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Tourism on the Cote d’Azur, where Nice – France’s second most-visited city after Paris – is situated, has been battered by the attack.
