France’s interior minister has acknowledged there was no national police presence at the entrance to the pedestrianised walkway in Nice where the Bastille Day truck attack that left 84 people dead occurred.
In what represents a backtracking from his previous claim that there was, Bernard Cazeneuve said local police, who are more lightly armed, were guarding the entrance to the area where Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove his truck.
Mr Cazeneuve defended himself against charges in French newspaper Liberation that he lied publicly about there being a national police presence at the entry point – with their cars blocking the road.
In a statement, Mr Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and maintained that several “heroic” national police – who shot the attacker dead – were stationed further down the promenade.
