Neighbours say Nice attacker was a loner
Suspect previously convicted for road rage Cops arrest his ex- wife
Nice, July 15: Neighbours of the man suspected to have killed scores of people in a truck attack on the Nice seafront described him Friday as a loner with no visible religious affiliation, as forensic experts searched his flat.
His ex- wife has been held for questioning, a police source said.
AFP reporters interviewed about a dozen neighbours of the man, named by the police as 31year- old Franco- Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, whose identity papers were found in the truck.
They portrayed him as a solitary figure who rarely spoke and did not even return greetings when their paths crossed in the four- storey block, located in a working- class neighbourhood of Nice.
Sebastien, a neighbour who spoke on condition that his full name was not used, said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel did not seem overtly religious, often dressed in shorts and sometimes wore work boots.
He had a van parked nearby and owned a bike, which he brought up into his first- floor apartment.
Of those who were interviewed, only one, a neighbour on the ground floor, said she had had any concerns about him — he was “a good- looking man who kept giving my two daughters the eye.”
Police investigators and forensic experts entered his apartment around 9.30am ( 0730 GMT) with an armed police intervention unit in support, and brought out bags of material later.
A source close to the investigation said an “inactive” grenade was found inside the vehicle, as well as “several fake rifles.”
Bouhlel was convicted only once before: for road rage, a Reuters report said.
He was convicted for the first time in March this year, justice minister Jean- Jacques Urvoas said.
“There was an altercation between him and another driver and he hurled a wooden pallet at the man,” Mr Urvoas told reporters.
Bouhlel was not on a watch list of French intelligence services as a suspected militant.
President Francois Hollande has declared the attack was of “an undeniable terrorist nature.”
“Investigations are currently underway to establish if the individual acted alone or if he had accomplices who might have fled,” interior ministry spokesman Pierre- Henry Brandet said.