Who Was the Bastille Day Truck Attacker?
The man who committed the atrocity in Nice appears to have been a violent petty criminal who did not espouse radical or Islamist views.
Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel used a truck for the attack on a crowd watching fireworks on Bastille Day. (Luca Bruno / AP)
Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel has been named as the man who used a truck to kill 84 people and injure scores more in a murderous attack Thursday evening in the French coastal city of Nice.
A resident of Nice who was born in Tunisia and said to be unknown to French intelligence agencies, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was described by The Guardian as a violent petty criminal.
According to widespread French media reports, the 31-year-old was a delivery driver from the town of M’saken [Tunisia], near the city of Sousse where dozens of foreign tourists were shot dead on a beach last year. He had reportedly last visited the town four years ago.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by two police officers at the end of his deadly Bastille Day rampage on the Promenade des Anglais, after apparently opening fire with a pistol. An inactive grenade was also found in the truck.
The married father of three was reported to have had a long criminal record and little apparent interest in religion. Echoing the remarks of French officials, security sources in Tunisia said he was not known by the Tunisian authorities to hold radical or Islamist views.
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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According to the city’s deputy mayor, Christian Estrosi, “The truck was full of weapons and grenades.” There are also reports of gunfire.
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