Nice Attacker Searched for Information on Orlando, Dallas Shootings

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, although there is no hard evidence linking Bouhlel to the group.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said five suspects now in custody are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack in the southern French city.

Tunisian delivery man Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was able to drive a 19-tonne truck along a packed sea-front promenade that was cordoned off and mow down dozens of locals and foreigners, killing at least 84 people before police shot him dead.

But he changed tack just hours later, after a truck driver ploughed through a crowd leaving a July 14 fireworks display in Nice, leaving 84 dead.

“We can’t lock people up on the basis of mere suspicion, or suspicion of suspicion”, minister for parliamentary relations Jean-Marie Le Guen said, AFP reported.

“I’d have liked the politicians to have the decency when the bodies were still on the Promenade not to start saying, it’s so-and-so’s fault”, said Stephane Bebert, who was at the ceremony.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was booed before and after the minute of silence for the victims of the deadly Bastille Day attack on Monday.

But Monthir, Bouhlel’s father, said his son had not shown signs of religious extremism, despite suffering from mental health problems.

In a statement, Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and maintains that several “heroic” national police – who killed the attacker after an exchange of fire – were stationed further down the promenade. He noted that past attacks on Paris – including the January 2015 shootings at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and the coordinated November strikes that killed 130 people – seemed more targeted, and thus avoidable, compared with the random group of Nice residents and tourists engulfed in chaos late Thursday night.

To honour the victims, the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, was sung in Paris and penetrated the hearts of all those present, the French interior ministry tweeted.

Bouhlel’s uncle Sadok Bouhlel claims his nephew was indoctrinated about two weeks ago by an Algerian member of IS in Nice. At some venues of grief, distraught individuals could be seen being consoled by friends and family.

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The first sign that the Nice truck attacker was planning something violent came about eight months ago, when he snapped a picture of a news story headlined: “Man deliberately rams vehicle into cafe terrace”. Silke said the sporadic nature of these attacks means that they can still unsettle France’s national psyche, but that the more often they happen, the less impact they will have.