French police arrest 2 in connection with Nice attack

Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, smashed a 19-tonne truck into crowd of people in the Riviera City who were celebrating Bastille Day – France’s national day.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that, after gunmen and suicide bombings, France was now facing “a new kind of attack”.

Two more suspects were detained for questioning early Sunday in connection with the Nice truck attack, officials said, amid lingering questions over whether the killer had accomplices.

French police Sunday released the estranged wife of the truck driver who ran down almost 300 Bastille Day revelers in the French resort of Nice, but are still questioning six others to see if the attacker was acting alone.

Police in Nice have said Bouhlel was known to them, but only as a petty criminal.

One of the men arrested is suspeted to have supplied arms to the killer, who sent a chilling text message demanding weapons minutes before the seafront massacre. Five people believed to be linked to the man who killed 84 people in Nice are in police custody according to a statement by the Paris prosecutor’s office. His call comes after the government has been criticised for not doing more to stop attacks.

Valls defended France’s record on attacks, saying security services had prevented 16 over three years and said the group’s modus operandi of cajoling unstable people into carrying out attacks with whatever means possible was hard to combat.

Hundreds of Nice residents, people from the region and tourists continued to mourn at the Promenade des Anglais, at two venues near the site of the truck attack that left 84 dead and many more battling for life in local hospitals, including children.

An ISIS-run news outlet said the driver “carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of coalition countries fighting the Islamic State”.

The Islamic State group described Mohamed Bouhlel as one of its soldiers.

Despite mounting criticism from the conservative opposition and far-right over how President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government is handling security, Valls said there was no risk zero and new attacks would occur.

Manuel Valls, in an interview with the Journal du dimanche newspaper published Sunday, said the Islamic State group “is encouraging individuals unknown to our services to stage attacks”.

There were reports Sunday that Bouhlel had spent time researching his route on the waterfront promenade where the attack unfolded, as he was caught on surveillance cameras driving the truck in the area on Tuesday and Wednesday. Neighbours told The Associated Press that the attacker’s estranged wife was among them.

With scores still hospitalized, including many children, France’s health minister was visiting Nice on Sunday.

There has also been anger at the length of time it is taking to identify victims. A man standing nearby said “Never here”.

“He would become angry and he shouted.He would break anything he saw in front of him”, he said, speaking to reporters in his Tunisian hometown of Msaken on Saturday.