France lorry attack: As it happened

Police in Nice released this image of Bouhlel's residence permit.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Our Tunisia correspondent Rana Jawad is in Msaken and caught up with Bouhlel's father Monthir:

"He took his treatment, his medicine, and we thought he was doing well - here's the medical certificate. I took him to the psychologist, he followed his treatment but sometimes he would have nervous breakdowns and he would break everything and demolish everything. He has had a nervous problem and when he becomes nervous he breaks everything.  He had problems with his wife and I think that added to his mental health issues."

Our Tunisia correspondent Rana Jawad is in the town of Msaken, where Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel grew up. She says the town is in shock. 

Many people who are in the town actually live in Nice, she says.  "The whole town is full of Tunisian expats so to speak, who only come back during the holiday." 

She reports how a short while ago Mohamed Bouhlel's father came by on a bicycle. He stopped to ask what she was filming, and spoke to her before continuing to cycle home.

We will bring you what he said shortly.

"In the wake of last night's attacks we've heard more suggestions that all Muslims in America be targeted, tested for their beliefs, some deported or jailed," Mr Obama said.

The US president was referring to a suggestion by Former US House  of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich that all US Muslims should be tested to see if they believed in Sharia - deporting those who did. Mr Obama said "the very suggestion is repugnant and an affront to everything that we stand for as Americans".

He went on: "We cannot give in to fear or turn on each other or sacrifice our way of life. We cannot let ourselves be divided by religion because that's exactly what the terrorists want. We should never do their work for them."  

It's not just the US, but the entire world that is standing with the French today, said President Obama. The attack is a "threat to all of us", he said.

"We pledge to stand with our French friends as we defend our nations against this scourge of terrorism and violence," he said. He noted recent attacks in the US, Turkey, Iraq and Bangladesh.

Terrorists are targeting people of all backgrounds, he said. 

"We will not relent" against terrorism, he said, and so-called Islamic State ideologies can be defeated.

"France is America's oldest ally. We owe our freedom to each other. We will stand united now."

The attacker was a 31-year-old Tunisian man known to police, but not previously linked to jihadist groups.

He was married with three children, but no longer lived with his wife.

A woman who knows the family told the BBC that Lahouaiej Bouhlel was thrown out of their home in the Le Ray area of Nice more than a year ago after allegedly beating his wife.  

Other neighbours described him as a "quiet loner". 

More here.

A Reuters agency photo of a child lifeless next to her doll after the attacks is horrifying stunned social media users.

A woman who says she is the neighbour of the suspect behind the attack in the French city of Nice has described him as a frightening man and "not normal".

The woman, called Hanan, spoke about living in the same building as forensic police carried out searches.

No failures by security services over Nice attack, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says.

The first night of BBC Proms opened with a tribute to the 84 Nice attack victims.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra played France's National Anthem, La Marseillaise, at Royal Albert Hall.

Proms director David Pickard said the tribute was arranged early on Friday.

"Waking up to the tragic news this morning of the attacks in Nice I felt it was appropriate, as a mark of respect, that we open the 2016 Proms festival with a tribute to the victims," Proms director David Pickard told BBC News.

Read more here.

President Hollande has summoned his ministers to a cabinet meeting tomorrow, Saturday, at 10:00 (08:00 GMT)

This is the fourth time in under two years that someone in France has driven a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians. 

But the earlier attacks were on nothing like this scale.

The French authorities were quick to call this a terrorist attack, although there was no immediate claim by the chief suspect, the so-called Islamic State. 

That organisation, based in Syria and Iraq, has been coming under increasing military pressure from US-led air strikes. 

As far back as September 2014 its spokesman, Abu Muhammed al-Adnani, called for supporters to carry out attacks exactly like the one in Nice. 

Professor John Gearson, who's an expert in National Security Studies at King's College, believes IS is currently favouring what he called spectacular attacks.

Using a vehicle as a weapon is a common form of attack in Iraq and Syria, where they are usually packed with explosives and driven into checkpoints or marketplaces. 

In Israel, Palestinian militants have used bulldozers to attack pedestrians. 

But in Europe this is a new and troubling development. In Britain, much has been learnt from measures taken against the Irish Republican Army. Those security precautions are now being hastily reviewed and updated. 

The man attacked by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in January - and which led to the suspended jail sentence - has expressed his indignation on his Facebook page, French media report. 

Jean-Baptiste Ximenes said Bouhlel should have been in jail, before asking: "Where is the justice here.This is a small world - so stop allowing them to walk free".

A former French Europe Minister, Pierre Lellouche, was part of a commission on inquiry into the Paris attacks last November.

He says France's response to the terror threat has been deeply flawed. 

"We need much better intelligence, much better coordination of intelligence inside France, among Europeans, with our neighbours controlling our borders - particularly the Turks. This is not happening fast enough," he told the BBC.

Mr Lellouche calls the current state of emergency - now extended - a joke. 

Putting thousands of troops on the streets may help to reassure a nervous public, he says, but the fact that a violent tactic from the Syrian civil war has now come to the streets of Nice, suggests that the Middle East and Europe are now part of what he calls the same strategic space.

The Queen and Prince Philip have sent their "most sincere condolences" to the families of those who died in the Nice lorry attack and to the French people, adding they were "deeply shocked and saddened".