NICE, France — French officials on Friday identified the man who used a 19-ton truck to massacre dozens of people on the French Riviera as a 31-year-old native of Tunisia with a history of petty crime and marriage problems — but no links with the militant extremists who have targeted and traumatized France.
The rampage Thursday night at a packed Bastille Day fireworks celebration in the southeastern city of Nice, which unfolded as the assailant used the rented refrigerated truck as a battering ram, was all the more unnerving because it came as a total surprise despite extensive security precautions, French officials acknowledged.
Nearly 24 hours later there was no claim of responsibility, and the Paris prosecutor, François Molins, said the killer, whom he identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, had been “completely unknown by intelligence services.”
Mr. Molins said the toll rose on Friday to 84 dead and 202 injured. At least 10 of the dead were children or teenagers, enjoying a fireworks display one moment and crushed to death the next.
[Source:- The New Yourk Times]
