Selfies: Bouhlel poses in same lorry he used to kill 84 Bastille Day revelers three days prior to attack

Jonathan Reilly, Danny Collins
The Sun
Tue, 19 Jul 2016 01:14 UTC

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The lorry-driving terrorist who killed 84 people when he drove through Bastille Day revelers "like a bowling ball" smirks inside the truck - just days before his murderous rampage. Evil Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, posed for the sick selfie inside the lorry's cab just three days before it knocked over scores of people as they watched a firework display in Nice. The ISIS-inspired French-Tunisian held a bizarre pose alongside his unidentified friend as he sat at the vehicle's steering wheel.

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In a second photo Lahouaiej-Bouhlel smirks as he stands in front of the 19-tonne truck alongside a man who is wearing a Paris Saint-Germain football shirt.

A source in the police investigation said the killer's mobile is "loaded with pictures like this" from the days before the attack. The other man in the pictures is in custody.

Prosecutors say Bouhlel took four snaps on Bastille Day itself, just hours before he would zig-zag through crowd gathered on a two-mile stretch of the Promenade des Anglais at 40mph for half an hour. Brave cops eventually shot him dead as he tried to open fire on the approaching officers.

Clean-shaven Bouhlel took another selfie next to the festivities just minutes before he boarded the truck to begin his attack. He also called his brother Jabeur, 20, seconds before carrying out the ISIS inspired atrocity. Student Jabeur yesterday revealed how he watched the drama unfold on TV and was panicked that his sibling was safe - oblivious to the fact he was behind the atrocity.

He told The Sun: "The photo he had sent me earlier, partying on the streets of Nice, made me fear he could have been a victim of the attack. "He looked so calm and happy, like he was having the time of his life."

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Sent to his brother hours before the attack.

Authorities in Nice yesterday completed the task of identifying all of the victims of Bouhlel's evil attack, which was inspired by terror group ISIS — 30 were Muslims. Otmane Aissaoui, from the city's grand mosque, said it proved Bouhlel did not care who he killed. Ten of the 84 who died were children.

Another 202 were injured, while the bodies of the scores killed were left on the promenade as thousands of Bastille Day revellers ran for their lives.

Dramatic footage also emerged of brave victims trying to stop the attack by clinging to the doors of the lorry before being thrown under the wheels and becoming "jammed".

A police raid of the father-of-three's home revealed the grubby lair where he planned the atrocity. Abandoned letters, crumpled clothing and a chair discarded in the centre of the room reveal the chaos he left behind before his killing spree. Bare walls and plain furniture decorate the bland home, with no indication the man who lived there had a social life or family. Neighbours described the cold-blooded killer as a "lonely" and "silent" man, with one saying he never returned friendly greetings.

The truck that was driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day being towed away by breakdown lorry. It had been sprayed with dozens of bullets by officers trying to stop the vehicle.

A cousin of Bouhlel's wife Hajer Khalfallah, said: "Bouhlel was not religious. "He did not go to the mosque, he did not pray, he did not observe Ramadan. He drank alcohol, ate pork and took drugs. This is all forbidden under Islam. "He was not a Muslim, he was a s***. He beat his wife, my cousin, he was a nasty piece of work."

Meanwhile, it emerged divorced Bouhlel regularly visited gyms with his 73-year-old male lover. Remy, a gym worker, said: "One day he would be weight training and the next he would do salsa dancing. The pair spoke very discreetly, but when it wasn't busy they were close."

Yesterday, the lawyer for Bouhlel's ex-wife Hajer Khalfallah said her client had gone into hiding with her kids after being targeted by a "baying mob who consider her guilty". Cops have quizzed and freed her.

Bouhlel was known to local police but not placed on any terrorist watch list set up after the Paris attacks last November.

Mourners removed flowers and other ­tributes from the Nice massacre scene yesterday as Promenade des Anglais opened for the first time since the attack. However, riot cops were called in as crowds tried to stop the "memorial of hate" — a pile of rubbish — to killer Bouhlel being cleared.