'I am delivering ice cream': What Nice terrorist told police when they stopped his truck hours before on the SAME promenade where he massacred 84
The Nice terrorist had been parked on the street for nearly nine hours and even told police he was delivering ice cream before carrying out his deadly attack, according to reports.
The killer, who was previously known to police for violence and theft, is reported to have had assault rifles, a pistol and even a grenade with him in the lorry - but they went undiscovered.
Despite allegedly questioning the driver, police officers in the southern French city did nothing to move him on as he waited to begin the attack.
Reports claim police allowed the killer to stay on the Promenade des Anglais because he told them he was delivering ice cream.
Although heavy duty lorries are normally banned from the roads during national holidays and Sundays, deliveries are often exempted.
Police have now formally identified the attacker as a 31-year-old French-Tunisian man who lived in Nice.
He was shot dead by a police officer, believed to have been female, after he opened fire into a crowd of fleeing people.
They are are withholding the name of the killer as they raid addresses belonging to his friends and acquaintances according to Le Point.
The streets were closed at 3pm for the Bastille Day celebrations, with no cars allowed in or out of the area while revellers celebrated.
At 10.30pm the driver accelerated along the beachfront road and ploughed through the crowds of people for more than a mile before getting out and opening fire, killing at least 84 people.
One witness said: 'I even had time to see the driver's face. He had a beard and appeared to be having fun.'
Police are using the 1,200 surveillance cameras covering the city to track the killer's route before he began the attack.
The killer is thought to have rented the truck a few days earlier.
It is believed he hired it from a specialist garage at Saint Laurent du Var by Nice Airport.
Police have discovered CCTV footage of the moment the man boarded the lorry in the hills around Nice, according to reports.
Documents found in the cab included an ID belonging to a man with a double French and Tunisian nationality. Police also found a mobile phone and a credit card.
Police have now formally identified the attacker. News channel BFM TV reported the verification was done with fingerprints.
Witnesses described how the lorry 'zigzagged' in order to create maximum chaos in the celebrating crowd.
'We almost died. It was like hallucinating,' a witness told i-Tele.
'The lorry zigzagged – you had no idea where it was going. My wife, a metre away, she was dead.'
The driver was said to have shouted 'Allahu Akbar' – God is great – before being shot dead by police.
Pictures from the scene of the deadly carnage show the lorry still standing whether the driver abandoned it, riddled with bullet holes.
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