Suspect linked to 2016 Nice attack arrested in Italy

Updated: Apr 21, 2021 / 08:09 PM CDT

FILE – In this July 15, 2016, file photo, forensic officers stand near a truck with its windscreen riddled with bullets that plowed through a crowd of revelers who’d gathered to watch the fireworks in the French resort city of Nice, southern France. Italian media say a 28-year-old Albanian wanted in connection with the 2016 truck attack in the French city of Nice that killed 86 people has been arrested in southern Italy. News agency LaPresse says police arrested the suspect, identified as Endri Elenzi, on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)

ROME (AP) — Italian media say a 28-year-old Albanian wanted in connection with a 2016 truck attack in the French city of Nice that killed 86 people has been arrested in southern Italy.

News agency LaPresse said police arrested the suspect, identified as Endri Elenzi, on Wednesday in Sparanise about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Naples.

Elenzi was wanted on a European arrest warrant issued by France for allegedly having provided arms to the attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, Lapresse said.

Bouhlel was killed by police after plowing a truck down Nice’s Promenade des Anglais and into a crowd assembled for a Bastille Day fireworks display.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the July 14, 2016, attack. French authorities say that Bouhlel, a Tunisian with French residency, was inspired by the extremist group’s propaganda, but that no evidence has been found that IS orchestrated the attack.

France’s counter-terrorism prosecutors last year made a formal request for nine suspects to face trial in connection with the attack.