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Nice attack killer: Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel identified as terrorist behind Bastille Day massacre

The attack appears to have been premeditated, police said

Andrew Griffin
Friday 15 July 2016 05:14 EDT
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What happened in Nice: 84 killed as lorry drives through crowd

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The man who killed more than 80 people with a truck in Nice has been locally identified.

The driver of the lorry was 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, according to newspaper Nice-Matin which cited local sources, who is from Nice.

Police had previously said that they had formally identified the man, after finding ID papers and a phone in the truck he used to kill 84 people on Thursday night, during Nice's Bastille Day celebrations. He had been shot by police at the end of the attack.

The attack appears to have been premeditated, the local paper said, citing police sources. The man might have hired the truck on Wednesday in a town near Nice, it reported, and CCTV him picking up the vehicle in the hills outside the city.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel worked as a delivery driver, and though he was known to police because of petty crime, was not suspected to have been radicalised and did not have a file with the anti-terrorism police.

The man was described as a loner who wasn't especially religious, in local newspaper reports.

Investigators are still looking to find whether the man was working with accomplices.

He had been a father for three years, Nice-Matin reported. Relatives are being questioned by police, it also said.

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