Nice attacker expressed support for Islamic State - prosecutor

Truck driver was quickly radicalised and had plotted out Bastille Day massacre, official says

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was booed by crowds gathered in Nice on Monday (July 18) for a memorial service to honour the victims of the truck attack in the Riviera city which left 84 dead. Video: Reuters

The truck driver who killed 84 people in Nice had expressed support for Islamic State and searched online for information about the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, the Paris prosecutor said

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, who oversees terrorism investigations, said attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had clearly plotted out the Bastille Day attack, with reconnaissance visits to the beach-front area where he mowed down revellers.

Mr Molins described a quick radicalisation of a man who in the past had not been religious. He said a review of Bouhlel’s computer and phone showed online searches relating to Isis, other jihadi groups and violent images.

Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack. Bouhlel’s uncle claims his nephew was indoctrinated about two weeks ago by an Algerian member of IS in Nice.

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Sadok Bouhlel said his nephew's family problems — he was estranged from his wife and three children — meant the Algerian extremist "found in Mohamed an easy prey for recruitment".

Meanwhile, France held a country-wide moment of silence on Monday to remember the victims, but mourning was punctured by anger and political division.

Crowds massed on the Riviera seafront in Nice booed the visiting prime minister Manuel Valls, whose Socialist government is coming under increasing criticism from the public and the conservative opposition for failing to prevent the Bastille Day carnage.

Along the curved, rocky Nice beach Monday, thousands of people gathered to mark the moment of silence, alongside religious leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities and other local dignitaries.

A total of 59 people remain in hospital after Thursday’s attack, 29 of them in intensive care, out of 308 people injured overall.

At the Pasteur hospital, where many of them are being treated, emergency responders and other medical personnel gathered in the courtyard for the moment of silence, standing still in a row and clapping when it was over.

A sign posted around town demonstrates a strong feeling of solidarity, calling for blood donations, stuffed animals for injured children and a plea to “unite against the crazy ones”.

But bitterness is also close to the surface. French prime minister Manuel Valls was loudly booed as he arrived at and left the ceremony on the Nice shore.

Seven people are in custody in the probe into the Nice attack. Three of the suspects were brought to French intelligence headquarters in Paris on Monday to face eventual terrorism charges, according to a security official.

At the home of one of the suspects, an Albanian national, investigators found 11 telephones, cocaine and €2,600 in cash, according to a security official and the Paris prosecutor’s office.

AP