International

Nice attacker made a mocking call before carnage, brother says

Published

8 years ago

July 18, 2016

Mohamed Lahouaiej, the man who sent France into a state of shock and horror when he drove a truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on the Riviera in the city of Nice killing 84 people in the process, made a pre-attack call to his home hours before the attack incoming reports reveal.

According to his brother who spoke to Reuters, Mohamed even sent a ‘laughing’ picture from the French city before striking at peak holiday time in an incident which occurred eight months after jihadist gunmen killed 130 people at a music concert in the capital of Paris.

“That last day he said he was in Nice with his European friends to celebrate the national holiday,” Bouhlel’s brother Jabeur told Reuters in their native Tunisia. In the photograph, “he seemed very happy and pleased, he was laughing a lot”.

Meanwhile scores of victims who are in critical condition are said to be battling to stay alive and according to French Health Minister Marisol Touraine, about 85 people in total are in hospital and of that number, 18 victims, including a child are in critical condition.

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