Two arrested in Nice over truck attack

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve hit back Monday, listing a series of laws and extra police forces created under Hollande’s presidency “to face a threat that France was not prepared for” when he took over from Sarkozy in 2012.

The memorial at the Promenade des Anglais continues to grow as locals and tourists place flowers, French flags, teddies and candles at the site of the attack. But neighbors in the Nice neighborhood where the Bouhlel used to live told The Associated Press that his estranged wife had been taken away Friday by police.

In an interview with the French newspaper Journal Du Dimanche (JDD) published on Sunday, Valls said,”Some irresponsible politicians say that this attack could be avoided”. He was shot to death by police.

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

“He carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State”, the statement said.

However, there has been no overt evidence linking him to the Islamic State group, which on Saturday claimed the attack.

As authorities were trying to better understand his motives, two more people, a man and a woman close to Bouhlel, were arrested in Nice early on Sunday.

What is known publicly about Bouhlel so far suggests a troubled, angry man with little interest in the group’s ultra-puritanical brand of Islam.

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

The psychiatrist, Chemceddine Hamouda, said Bouhlel’s parents brought him to his clinic in Msaken in August 2004.

His uncle Sadok Bouhlel claimed he was indoctrinated by an Algerian ISIS recruiter in Nice just weeks before he carried out the attack.

Bouhlel scouted out the promenade twice before the attack – on Tuesday and Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office told NBC News. Simpson said “there is still hope he is going to wake up”.

Many families are angry that they couldn’t find information about missing loved ones, and many are angry at police for not preventing the deadly attack despite France being under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks past year in Paris. A special church service was being held at a Nice cathedral on Sunday in honour of the victims.

Valls defended the government’s actions but warned that more lives will be lost to this kind of violence.

Charlton reported from Paris.