The Nice truck attacker staked out the seafront for two days before striking, it emerged on Sunday as investigators pieced together details of the Islamic State-claimed massacre and questioned possible accomplices.
A source close to the investigation said that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-yearold Tunisian, sent a text message just before the attack in which he “expresses satisfaction at having obtained a 7.65 millimetre pistol and discusses the supply of other weapons”. He also took a selfie at the wheel of the 19-tonne truck in the days before he ploughed it into a crowd of people who had been enjoying a fireworks display on Bastille Day, France’s national day , killing 84 and injuring about 300.
Meanwhile, French authorities detained two more people on Sunday in the investigation into the attack. Hundreds were injured in the Thursday night attack, and about 85 people remained hospitalised on Sunday , health minister Marisol Touraine said on a visit to the southern French city. Of those, 18 are in life-threatening condition, including one child, she said.
A man and a woman were detained on Sunday morning in Nice, according to an official with the Paris prosecutor’s office, which oversees national terrorism investigations.The official provided no details on their identities, and said five people detained previously remain in custody. Neighbours said the attacker’s estranged wife was among them.
Investigators are hunting for possible accomplices to truck driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who had lived in Nice for years. He was killed by police after ramming his truck through crowds on Nice’s famed seafront after a holiday fireworks display Thursday night.
The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it’s unclear whether Bouhlel had concrete links to the group. The IS said he was following their calls to target citizens of countries fighting the extremists.
A special church service was being held at a Nice cathedral on Sunday in honour of the victims. Touraine, the health minister, urged any survivors to seek counselling offered by the government.
Nice’s famous Promenade des Anglais, the site of the slaughter, is gradually reopening and becoming a shrine to the dead. Memorials have been set up on the westbound lane of the road where victims were struck, some still identifiable by bloodstains.
Many families in Nice were angry that they couldn’t find information about missing loved ones.
Many are also angry at French police and authorities for not preventing the deadly attack, even though France was under a state of emergency. Valls, in the newspaper interview, defended the government’s actions but warned that more lives will be lost to this kind of violence.
Sourced from AP, Featured Image Courtesy: AP
