8 arrested over links to Nice truck attacker
Agencies
September 20, 2016 11:38 MYT
September 20, 2016 11:38 MYT
This image obtained by AFP on July 15, 2016 from a French police source shows a reproduction of the residence permit of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the man who rammed his truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice on July 14.
French police on Tuesday arrested eight associates of the terrorists who killed 86 people when he ploughed his truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, an investigation source said.
"They are associates of the perpetrator. We are carrying out checks and they are in custody," the source said.
"They are all men, of French and Tunisian nationality."
The men were arrested in Nice and in the neighbouring towns of Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer.
Police were also searching properties on Tuesday, the source said.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed a 19-tonne truck through a crowd of more than 30,000 people gathered on the seafront Promenade des Anglais in Nice on July 14 before police shot him dead.
The Diash militant group claimed he was one of its followers.
Bouhlel was initially thought to have planned the attack alone but anti-terror investigators later said he had received help from several people and had spent several months planning it.
Six people have already been charged over the attack.