With 84 dead, France investigates whether truck attacker acted alone

French police detained individuals at the police station in Nice as part of investigations into a truck attack on Bastille Day crowds.

Authorities were trying to determine whether a Tunisian who killed at least 84 people by ploughing a truck into crowds gathered on Promenade des Anglais had acted alone or with accomplices, but said the attack bore the hallmarks of Islamist militants.

The driver, 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was shot dead by officers at the scene. He was known to police for petty crimes but was not on a watch list of suspected militants. He had one criminal conviction, for road rage, and was sentenced to probation three months ago for throwing a wooden pallet at another driver.

Bouhlel’s estranged wife was taken into custody together with another person on Friday, but released on Sunday.

Three people, whom police sources refer to as Bouhlel’s “close entourage” were arrested on Saturday, and a man and a woman close to Bouhlel were arrested early on Sunday, bringing the number of people in detention during the killings to six.