As Nice’s coastal promenade along the Mediterranean Sea reopened, tourists and residents paid tribute to the 84 people killed and the 200 wounded in Thursday night’s attack, their blood still jarringly visible on the pavement.
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Neighbours described the attacker as volatile, prone to drinking and womanizing, and in the process of getting a divorce.
Bouhlel sent one of those people text messages just before the attack, the French security official said.
Authorities have now detained seven people over the killings, claimed by Islamic State.
An Albanian suspected of providing the driver with the pistol was arrested in Nice on Sunday.
Many of those who knew him said in the days after Thursday’s Bastille Day attack that Bouhlel was a hard person, describing him variously as aloof and hostile, even violent at times.
Two replica assault rifles and a dummy grenade were also found in the truck, which he rented a few days earlier and used for reconnaissance on the seafront. Among them was Bouhlel’s former wife, who was released from custody on Sunday morning, local media reported the authorities as saying. Many people are still desperately waiting for news of their loved ones.
Pradal said the attack in Nice, which follows two mass killings by Islamic extremists in Paris previous year, 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. Past studies show that most people who witness traumatic events recover on their own and that attempts by mental health professionals to offer counseling in the immediate aftermath of the events could actually worsen their prognosis, he said.
Agnes Thibault Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the anti-terrorism prosecutor, did not provide details on the couple’s connection to the terror attack.
Those still being held are said to be close associates of the killer but have not been identified.
Religious services and gatherings in memory of the victims took place in several French cities on Sunday.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called for a police inquiry into the security measures taken in Nice, after an article in Liberation daily claiming that only one municipal police vehicle was guarding the spot where Bouhlel crashed through barriers onto the promenade.
The investigation of Bouhlel, whose rampage ended when the police shot him to death, has so far produced contradictory portraits. But the statement quoting an IS security member said the man was following calls from the group to target citizens of countries fighting it. There is no evidence IS was involved in planning the July 14 attack.
France’s government is facing severe criticism from opposition politicians and newspapers following the Nice attack, the third major terrorist attack on the French soil in 18 months.
“Enough with the speeches” and “Sick of carnage in our streets”, the messages read.
Cazeneuve hit back Monday, listing a series of laws and extra police forces created under Hollande’s presidency “to face a threat that France wasn’t prepared for” when he took over from Sarkozy in 2012.
Another film now in French cinemas, “Moi, Olga” (I, Olga) tells the story of a young woman who crushes people under a truck, reported Le Figaro newspaper.
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The latest attack comes after a French parliamentary inquiry last week criticised numerous failings by the intelligence services following jihadist assaults in January and November previous year. French warplanes have been involved in the operation in Iraq and to a lesser degree in Syria.
