On Monday, Cazeneuve said any link between Bouhlel and the Islamic State (ISIS) had “yet to be established” although ISIS was quick to claim that it was responsible for the attack.
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ISIS-inspired Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, snapped a smiling photo of himself and an unidentified friend standing in front of the 19-ton truck just three days before he used it to barrel into crowds of people enjoying fireworks along the Promenade Des Anglais.
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.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s identity card was found inside the truck that ploughed into a crowd in Nice.
Bouhlel staked out the site of the carnage in Nice, the Promenade des Anglais, on several occasions, took selfies there throughout the day of the attack and had reserved the rented truck on July 4.
Delobel described Bouhlel, who was born in Tunisia but had a permit to live and work in France, as someone who “wasn’t very intelligent” but said he “could have been influenced by religion” in carrying out the attack. We need to be human.
He fired at officers with a 7.65mm calibre automatic pistol when the vehicle was close to the Negresco hotel and continued for another 300m, where his vehicle was stopped near the Palais de la Mediterranee hotel and he was shot dead. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it’s unclear whether Bouhlel had concrete links to the group.
Touraine told reporters about 85 people remain hospitalized after the attack and 18 of them are in life-threatening condition – including one child.
Meanwhile, a man and a woman were held in Nice on Sunday morning. Touraine, the health minister, urged any survivors to seek counseling offered by the government.
He was identified by fingerprints after his identification card was found in the truck, authorities said.
The ISIS-linked news agency Amaq said in a statement released through its Telegram account on Saturday, “The person who carried out the operation in Nice, France, to run down people was one of the soldiers of the Islamic State”.
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“Populism stalks us, ready to pounce at any opportunity, to blow on the embers of discord and exacerbate divisions, as every new division makes us more vulnerable”, Valls said.
