Two arrested in connection with Nice truck attack

Two new arrests have been arrested in Nice in connection with the horrific terror attack on Thursday evening that saw at least 84 people killed after a lorry was driven into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day.

French police are believed to have arrested a man and a woman in Nice on Sunday morning who allegedly have links to the man behind the attack, a French judicial source was reported as saying. 

A man named as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove his vehicle more than one mile along the coastal French city’s Promenade de Anglais, injuring more than 200 people and killing 84 people, including several children. The killer was eventually shot dead by police with pictures showing his truck riddled with bullet holes.

Seven people have now been detained by authorities over the killings, which have been claimed by the Islamic State.

Three people were arrested on Saturday in connection to the incident and two on Friday including the killer’s estranged wife.

No evidence has emerged so far to show the the 31-year-old delivery driver and chauffeur had connections to Isis.

However, a day after insisting that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had no terror links and was only known to police in connection with petty crimes, the French government said he must indeed have had such links.

Prosecutor Francois Molins had stated on Friday that the killer was “totally unknown to intelligence services...and was never flagged for signs of radicalisation”. But prime minister Manuel Valls said today that he was “in one way or another” linked to Islamists and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve stated he must have been “radicalised very quickly”. 

An inquiry into “terrorist mass murder” has been opened, although prosecutors admit that currently there is no evidence of ideological motivation.

Nonetheless, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, although there is no clear evidence of premeditation. Indeed, the use of a vehicle, the target, and the fact that the attack took place on the highly symbolic Bastille Day, all suggest a jihadi operation.