On Sunday, French authorities arrested two more suspects, a man and a woman, in connection with truck attack in Nice.
On Thursday night, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian-born émigré killed at least 84 people in the city when he rammed a truck into Bastille Day revelers, many of whom were foreign tourists. Tens of thousands of people had gathered at iconic Promenade Des Anglais in Nice city to watch a Bastille Day fireworks display.
French authorities are now trying to determine Bouhlel’s path to radicalization and whether he had been an Islamic extremist or just an angry man.
So far, police have detained six people for questing in this case. Bouhlel’s wife was released from custody Sunday morning, according to authorities. She is the mother of Bouhlel’s three children and had also initiated the process of divorcing Bouhlel.
The Bastille Day carnage on the seafront of the southern Mediterranean city of Nice claimed lives of 84 people and wounded more than 200 people. About 85 people are still hospitalized, and of those, 18 are fighting for their lives, Health Minister Marisol Touraine told reporters. The families of 12 victims were shown the bodies of their loves ones for the first time on Sunday. Sixteen bodies have still not been identified.
Investigators are now looking for possible accomplices to Bouhlel, who was killed by police soon after he rammed his truck through the crowds. Just half-hour before the attack, Bouhlel had sent a text message to someone saying, “Bring more weapons.” he phone was recovered from Bouhlel’s rented 19-ton refrigerator truck.
According to Bouhlel’s neighbors, he was a volatile person, prone to womanizing and drinking. Bouhlel’s father has also revealed that Bouhlel had “psychological problems that caused a nervous breakdown.”
“He would become angry, shout, break everything around him,” Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej Bouhlel said in the family home town of Msaken, about 75 miles south of Tunis.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said: “It seems that he radicalized his views very rapidly. These are the first elements that our investigation has come up with through interviews with his acquaintances.”
“We are now facing individuals who are responding positively to the messages issued by the Islamic State without having had any special training and without having access to weapons that allow them to commit mass murder,” Cazeneuve said.
Although ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, it is still unclear whether Bouhlel had any links to the group. The Amaq news agency, linked to ISIS, declared that that Bouhlel “was a soldier of the Islamic State.”
“He executed the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations that fight the Islamic State,” the news agency said.
Al-Bayan radio station of the Islamic group said Bouhlel used “a new tactic” to wreak havoc.
“The crusader countries know that no matter how much they enforce their security measures and procedures, it will not stop the mujahideen from striking,” the station said.
Meanwhile, the city of Nice is now trying to return to normal. On Saturday, the seaside Promenade des Anglais was partially reopened to traffic. Beaches were also reopened. Many people were seen dropping flowers on the spots where wounded people had fallen on the road.
A special church service was held at a Nice cathedral on Sunday in honor of the victims.
