The man, who mow through a crowd with a truck and killed 84 Bastille Day revellers in Nice on Thursday, had phoned home hours earlier and sent a ‘laughing’ picture from the French city, his brother told Reuters as 18 more victims fought for their lives.
During a visit to Nice on Sunday, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said the 18, including one child, were in a critical condition, while about 85 people in total were still in the hospital.
The attack by delivery man Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel at peak holiday time on the Riviera plunged France into new grief and fear, just eight months after jihadist gunmen killed 130 people in 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.