France to fall silent for Nice victims as politicians bicker

Driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel killed 84 people and injured 202 on Thursday.

While the so-called Islamic State (IS) group claimed the attack, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel may not necessarily have coordinated it with a larger network, Mr Cazeneuve said.

The building where lived Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel is pictured in Nice, southern France. The attack came eight months after Isis terrorists killed 130 people across Paris, and 18 months after three days of terror at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket left 17 dead.

“We know now that the killer was radicalized very quickly”, he said.

“I also wanted to show my support for France at the moment of silence today because the US and France are in this together in this bad fight against terrorism”, Hartley told The Associated Press as she arrived at the Nice city hall to meet mayor Philippe Pradal.

The attacker’s computer records showed a “sure and recent interest for radical jihadist movements”, Molins said, adding that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had also consulted articles on fatal accidents including a report from Nice Matin newspaper headlined: “Man drives his vehicle into a restaurant terrace”.

French authorities arrested two additional suspects – a man and a woman – Sunday in connection with the terror attack that killed 84 last week.

Before and after a minute of silence held to pay respects to the 84 dead, numerous thousands gathered in the south-coast resort city of Nice chanted “resign, resign” at Manuel Valls, the Socialist prime minister.

Molins, who oversees terrorism investigations, said Bouhlel had clearly plotted out the Bastille Day attack, with reconnaissance visits to the beachfront where he plowed down revelers on Thursday.

French officials could not confirm Monday that attacker Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel had been approached by an Algerian recruiter, saying that the investigation is ongoing.

Officials in Nice, which included Prime Minister Manuel Valls, were greeted with whistles and jeers from the crowd, along with some shouted insults accusing them of incompetence and politicking after the attack.

“Everything that should have been done over the past 18 months was not done”, Sarkozy said on TF1 television Sunday night.

The French government has been criticised by political opponents for what they said had been an ineffective counter-terrorism policy, while President Francois Hollande’s popularity ratings remain at the lowest ever for a modern leader in France.

However France’s prime minister claims there is no doubt on the assailant’s motives.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said operations would continue in liaison with the Interior Ministry to “eliminate this cancer that is Daesh”, using the alternative name for the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) group.

Bouhlel sent a chilling text message asking for “more weapons” minutes before the attack.

ISIS – which had previously told its followers to run people over with cars – took responsibility for the attack in a statement released Saturday to Amaq.

Molins said 71 victims had been officially identified so far, with the authorities taking painstaking measures to avoid errors of identification seen during the Paris attacks last November.

Seven people are in custody in the probe into the Nice attack.