Attacker staked out Nice site, accomplice suspected

A source close to the investigation told AFP that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, sent a text message just before the attack in which he 'expresses satisfaction at having obtained a 7.65-millimetre pistol and discusses the supply of other weapons'.

He also took a selfie at the wheel of the 19-tonne truck in the days before he ploughed it into a crowd of people who had been enjoying a fireworks display on Bastille Day, France's national day, killing 84 and injuring about 300.

Mangled bodies were left strewn across the Riviera city's seafront in the grisly attack by a man described by those who knew him as a loner with a history of violence and depression.

While some relatives and friends described the delivery driver as someone who drank heavily and never attended the local mosque, others questioned by investigators spoke of 'a recent shift to radical Islam', said a police source.

But there has been no evidence yet linking him to the Islamic State group, which yesterday claimed the attack.

An Albanian suspected of providing the driver with the pistol was arrested in Nice. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel fired at police who sprayed his rampaging truck with gunfire, eventually killing him.

Two replica assault rifles and a dummy grenade were also found in the truck, which he rented a few days earlier and used for reconnaissance on the seafront.

Besides the Albanian, six other people were being held over the carnage.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's estranged wife, the mother of his three children, was released today after two days of questioning.

In Nice, many people were still desperately waiting for news of their loved ones.

Prosecutors said only 35 victims have been officially identified as they take painstaking measures to avoid errors of identification seen during the Paris attacks last November.

"We have no news, neither good nor bad," said Johanna, a Lithuanian who was looking for her two friends, aged 20.

At least 10 children were among the dead as well as tourists from the United States, Ukraine, Switzerland, Germany and about 10 people from Russia, a local Russian association said.

Religious services and gatherings in memory of the victims took place in several French cities.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine said 85 people were still hospitalised, 18 of them in critical condition.