The 31-year-old Tunisian barreled through Bastille Day crowds in a rental truck, killing 84 and wounding dozens more before being killed by police.
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Anti-terror prosecutor Francois Molins said that although Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had never been investigated by the security services for any links to radical Islam, he was known to police.
French authorities said six people are in custody in connection with the attacks. Bouhlel’s father said after the attack that his son had been prone to violent episodes. Also Tuesday, Germany’s foreign minister said two students and a teacher from a Berlin school were killed in the attacks.
Touraine said 18 patients remain “between life and death”, including one child.
A Bastille Day firework display watched by some 30,000 people from the glitzy beach-front avenue, the Promenade des Anglais, had just ended and spectators were beginning to drift away at around 10.45pm on July 14 (2045 GMT, 4.45am on July 15 in Malaysia) when three officers posted at one end of the walkway got word by radio that a truck had slammed into the crowd.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said only 35 bodies have been definitively identified so far, carried out by specialists with a judicial official present.
In a statement, it said “the person. carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition which is fighting the Islamic State”. But Valls told the newspaper the Journal du Dimanche in an interview Sunday that the extremist group “is encouraging individuals unknown to our services to stage attacks”.
But neighbors in the Nice neighborhood where the Bouhlel used to live told The Associated Press that his estranged wife had been taken away Friday by police. Memorials for the dead have been set up on the westbound lane of the road where the victims were mowed down by Bouhlel.
Joggers, bikers and sunbathers cruised down the pedestrian walkway along the glistening Mediterranean Sea on Sunday, where well-wishers placed flowers, French flags, stuffed animals and candles for the victims.
The mayor of the southern village of Krzyszkowice, Wladyslaw Dydula, has told the AP that two young women from the village died in the attack in Nice. Pained and outraged epitaphs have been written in blue marker on stones placed where police shot him dead.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said he asked to rent her letter box from her. An argument ensued, with other passers-by saying that his family deserved respect. The psychiatrist, Chemceddine Hamouda, said Bouhlel’s parents brought him to his clinic in Msaken in August 2004.
Many families are angry and frustrated that they couldn’t find information about their missing loved ones.
“That last day he said he was in Nice with his European friends to celebrate the national holiday”, Jabeur said, adding that in the photo “he seemed very happy and pleased, he was laughing a lot”.
Many in France are also angry at police and authorities for not preventing the deadly attack, even though France was under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks previous year in Paris.
Valls defended the government’s actions but warned that more lives will be lost to this kind of violence.
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The third annual auction held Wednesday night by the Titanic-star’s foundation honored victims and survivors of the recent tragedy in the neighboring city of Nice.
