The man who killed 84 people in the Bastille Day attack in the French seaside city of Nice had expressed his interest in radical Islam, according to the Paris prosecutor.
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Bouhlel had also carried out daily searches from the start of July of jihadist propaganda websites showing violent images. “And bless him, he has been at the hospital with her most days”, Cook said.
Eighty-four people were killed when Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove through crowds watching fireworks on Nice’s famed Promenade del Anglais.
With flowers in their hands and tears in their eyes, crowds stood on the rocky beach for several minutes looking towards the Promenade des Anglais, the road where the attack targeting Bastille Day celebrations occurred. Numerous dead and 308 injured were children. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said there was no doubting the assailant’s motives.
He said his nephew was “easy prey”, as he had been experiencing family problems.
Though the juxtaposition of his life – a ladies’ man who drank alcohol, did not pray, and was an avid gym-goer – and his radicalisation has puzzled investigators, experts on radicalisation say this is far from an isolated case.
French officials could not confirm Monday that attacker Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel had been approached by an Algerian recruiter, saying that the investigation is ongoing.
The 69-year-old from Tunisia, said his nephew “stained the reputation of our town and our country”.
He said he learned about the Algerian from extended family members who live in Nice.
In recent years Nice has also seen a disproportionate number of young Muslims joining jihadist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, prompting local authorities to put in place a range of measures meant to spot radicalization and encourage friends or family members to report what Pradal called “weak signals” such as changed eating habits or sudden interest in religion.
“What we want to know now is what were the links between the man who was behind this terrible attack and the terrorist networks”, CNN reported Cazeneuve said.
Meanwhile, the French government has defended its efforts to fight IS overseas and at home, announcing new air strikes against their strongholds in the past two days.
French MPs will now mull a fourth extension of the eight-month-old state of emergency, as criticism mounts of the Socialist government’s response to a slew of extremist attacks.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 59 people were still hospitalized after Thursday’s attack, 29 of them in intensive care, out of 308 people injured overall. The attack was the third major terror strike on France in 18 months, and Cazeneuve hit out at opposition politicians who have fiercely criticized the government for not doing enough to stop the bloodshed.
Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Valls was ready to take other proposals on board concerning the specific powers emergency rule would comprise to bolster the counter-terrorism efforts of the police and intelligence services.
He said France will continue its military operations overseas, which include airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, anti-terrorism operations in Africa and special forces in Libya.
While the so-called Islamic State (IS) group claimed the attack, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel may not necessarily have coordinated it with a larger network, Mr Cazeneuve said.
However, he said no clear link had been established between the father of three and the Islamic State group which claimed the Bastille Day carnage.
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Numerous dead and injured were children watching a fireworks display with their families. “The attack there may have more of an impact than the Paris attacks because people may now be thinking, ‘where can I go to relax and be safe?'” He said that the pattern of repeated attacks could eventually prompt people to change their behavior, if they fear the government is unable to protect them.
