'Bring more weapons': Chilling text messages sent from Bastille Day attacker
New details reveal the chilling text messages terrorist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel sent minutes before slaughtering 84 people while hundreds were watching a fireworks display in Nice, France.
Anti-terror police found the killer's driver's license, bank card and a mobile phone inside the bullet-ridden truck as forensic experts searched his home to find any further links.
The 31-year-old also requested the "heaviest truck" available when he rented the 19-tonne deadly vehicle.
Bouhlel spent Tuesday 12 July and Wednesday 13 July driving up and down the Promenade des Anglais figuring out how he could cause the greatest amount of damage.
“Bring more weapons,” a chilling text message read that was sent at 10.27pm. “Bringing in 5,” an unnamed person replied.
An earlier messages read: “It’s good. I got the equipment.”
Bouhlel's brother, Jaber Bouhlel, said he received a selfie of him mingling and "laughing a lot" among the crowd hours before he drove a truck travelling over 60kmh into crowd.
“He sent a selfie and told me he was happy and everything in his life was normal," the 19-year-old said.
Bouhlel was reportedly on medication to control his rages and was said to suffer severe psychotic attacks,
He was then shot dead by police following the attack.
So far, seven people have been arrested in connection with the attack.
A man and woman, also arrested are believed to be Bouhlel's entourage and responsible for supplying him with weapons.
The estranged wife of Bouhlel, Hajer Khalfallah, was released by police and left a central Nice police station with her lawyer and was driven to her mother's home which is near a home she shared with Bouhlel.
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A secret Islamic State-linked terror network claimed responsibility for the attack.
Terror chiefs posted a statement to Twitter calling Bouhlel a "soldier of the Islamic State"
"Executor of the deadly operation in Nice, France was a soldier of the Islamic State," the statement read.
However, there is no proof that Bouhlel was connected to the group, the statement claims ISIS approves the sickening attack.
Neighbours have described Bouhlel as a moody and angry person who drank and did drugs.
Bouhlel reportedly sold his car, emptied his bank account and sent almost $150,000 to his family in Tunisia before carrying out the attack.
He moved to France from the northeastern Tunisian town of M'saken in 2005 and according to his sister, Bouhlel was treated for psychological issues for years before leaving Tunisia.
Bouhlel's parents reportedly took their son to him to a psychiatrist in M'saken in August 2004.
"He had behavioural problems with his parents at that time ... he was very aggressive with them," psychiatrist Chemceddine Hamouda said.
Hamouda also claims Bouhlel had body issues and was always questioning why he was "thin".
