Nice, France (CNN)French authorities arrested a man and a woman
Sunday in the terror attack that killed 84 people in Nice last week, a
prosecutor said.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31,
drove a 20-ton truck through hundreds gathered to watch the Bastille Day
fireworks on the Mediterranean city's waterfront Thursday.
Agnes Thibault Lecuivre, a
spokeswoman for the anti-terrorism prosecutor, confirmed the arrests, but did
not provide details on their connection to the terror attack.
French authorities earlier
said they had been questioning five people Saturday. Among them was Bouhlel's
ex-wife, who was taken into custody Friday, the anti-terrorism prosecutor's
office said. The other four were men.
Bouhlel was shot to death by
police after he barreled down the crowded Promenade des Anglais for almost a
mile Friday, crushing and hitting people who had gathered to watch fireworks.
More than 200 people were injured.
He was identified by
fingerprints after his identification card was found in the truck, authorities
said.
ISIS: 'Soldier'
behind attack
ISIS' media group, Amaq
Agency, said an ISIS "soldier" carried out the attack.
In a statement Saturday, it
said "the person ... carried out the operation in response to calls to
target nationals of the coalition which is fighting the Islamic State."
Bouhlel became rapidly
radicalized and hadn't shown up on any anti-terrorist intelligence radar, said
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
He had had no record of making
militant statements and was not known to the intelligence services, the minister
said.
"It seems he became
radicalized very quickly," Cazeneuve said Saturday, without offering
specifics.
Criminal record
Bouhlel, a resident of Nice,
was born in Tunisia but had a permit to live and work in France.
He was identified by
fingerprints after his identification card was found in the truck, authorities
said.
He was known to police because
of allegations of threats, violence and thefts over the past six years, and he
was given a suspended six-month prison sentence this year after being convicted
of violence with a weapon, authorities said.
Despite his criminal record,
he was not on the radar for any kind of terror threat. The man was
"entirely unknown by the intelligence services, whether nationally or
locally," French prosecutor Francois Molins said.
"He had never been the
subject of any kind of file or indication of radicalization."
Threat to France
Bouhlel's father, who lives in
Tunisia, said his son showed signs of mental health issues -- having had
multiple nervous breakdowns and volatile behavior, said CNN terrorism analyst
Paul Cruickshank.
Cruickshank said "no
country in the Western world is threatened more by jihadis and terrorism than
France."
"This is a big step back
here. They are absolutely exhausted after a year and a half of intense efforts
to try and protect this country," Cruickshank said.
"The painful reality here
is that if it wasn't going to be this promenade, it would have been any other
promenade."
France had put intense security in place for Euro 2016, the international
soccer tournament that just ended. No major attacks occurred during the event.
29 still in
intensive care
About 85 people
are still hospitalized in the wake of the attack, with 29 patients in intensive
care, said Marisol Touraine, French minister of social affairs and health.
Touraine said of
those in intensive care, 18 patients remain "between life and death,"
including one child.
Around 500 people
in Nice have sought psychological support in the aftermath of the attack, she
added.
Margot Haddad reported from
Nice and Susannah Cullinane wrote in Auckland. CNN's Peter Wilkinson, Jason
Hanna and Euan McKirdy contributed to this report
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