Five people held for questioning over the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice are due to appear in court.

Four men and one woman, aged between 22 and 40, will attend a court in Paris on Thursday over their alleged links to Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who drove a truck into a crowd on the promenade in Nice, killing 84 people.

Among the group are a 40-year-old who Bouhlel had known for a long time and a 38-year-old Albanian man detained along with his girlfriend and suspected of providing the Tunisian attacker with an automatic pistol.

A 22-year-old man who received a text from Bouhlel shortly before the rampage will also appear in court, along with a man who had been in contact with Bouhlel over weapons.

A source close to the case said police had found a Kalashnikov rifle and a bag of ammunition in the basement of one of the men held in connection with the attack.

About 100 investigators are poring over masses of data linked to the probe, and photos found on Bouhlel’s cellphone indicate he was studying several locations where crowds gathered.



One photo concerns a fireworks display on August 15, another a race on January 10 along the Promenade des Anglais where the attack took place, and another showed the opening times of the fan zone during the Euro football tournament.

Jean-Pascal Padovani, the lawyer for the 22-year-old suspect, has denied “any implication in a terrorist act” by his client.

Like Bouhlel, none of those detained were known to French intelligence prior to the attack.



Their court appearance comes as the French government tries to reassure its citizens following the country’s third major attack in 18 months.



On Thursday, the senate is set to pass a bill extending the state of emergency, which gives police extra powers to carry out searches and place people under house arrest, for six months.



It is the fourth time the security measures have been extended since Islamic State attacked Paris in November last year, killing 130 people.

On Wednesday, French MPs voted to allow the authorities to search luggage and vehicles without prior approval from a prosecutor, and to permit police to seize data from computers and mobile phones.

The legislation makes it easier for authorities to shut down places of worship suspected of encouraging extremism.

Following the attack, Isis said Bouhlel was one of its “soldiers”, but while he had showed a recent interest in jihadi activity, there was no evidence that the driver acted on behalf of Isis, according to investigators.