NICE: French police on Tuesday arrested eight associates of the jihadist who killed 86 people when he ploughed his truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, an investigation source said.
“They are associates of the perpetrator. We are carrying out checks and they are in custody,” the source said.
“They are all men, of French and Tunisian nationality.”
The men were arrested in Nice and in the neighbouring towns of Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer.
Police were also searching properties on Tuesday, the source said.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed a 19-tonne truck through a crowd of more than 30,000 people gathered on the seafront Promenade des Anglais in Nice on July 14 before police shot him dead.
The Islamic State group claimed he was one of its followers. Bouhlel was initially thought to have planned the attack alone but anti-terror investigators later said he had received help from several people and had spent several months planning it.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the suspects detained Monday were French and Tunisian and had links to Bouhlel, who plowed a 19-tonne truck down Nice’s Promenade des Anglais and into a crowd assembled for a July 14 fireworks display.
{{/usCountry}}The Paris prosecutor’s office said the suspects detained Monday were French and Tunisian and had links to Bouhlel, who plowed a 19-tonne truck down Nice’s Promenade des Anglais and into a crowd assembled for a July 14 fireworks display.
{{/usCountry}}All eight were arrested in the Alpes-Maritimes region in the southeastern corner of France that includes Nice. At least five people already face preliminary terrorism charges in the attack, accused of helping Bouhlel obtain a pistol and providing other support.