Police Arrest Three in Nice as Islamic State Claims Truck Attack

The 31-year old Tunisian driver of the truck drove at a Bastille day crowd on the waterfront of the French riveria city on Thursday night.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the truck attack on the French city of Nice on Saturday as French police arrested three people there in connection with the carnage that claimed the lives of at least 84 people.

“Information related to the attack in Nice on July 14 was sent out much too late by the SAIP app”, the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that the app’s designers had been summoned to a crisis meeting on Friday afternoon.

“An action plan has been demanded without delay so that such an incident can not happen again”, the ministry said.

Seeking to quell fear and criticism, the French government called up thousands of police reserves Saturday to increase security around the country, after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a beachfront Bastille Day attack that security forces failed to thwart.

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ISIS also claimed responsibility for the November 13 attacks which killed 130 people in Paris, while gunmen in January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo weekly and a Jewish supermarket were linked to both ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

In a statement via its Amaq news service, ISIS said one of its “soldiers” carried out Thursday night’s attack “in response to calls to target nations of coalition states that are fighting (ISIS)”.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s ex-wife was detained for questioning on Friday morning, and another of his associates was detained later on Friday, France’s Le Monde reported. A makeshift memorial of bouquets, candles and messages had been set up near one end of the expansive avenue. Given the current chaos and violence grappling every part of the world, we will urge the western countries to shun their anti Muslim policies, adhere to the hallmarks of being free and liberal society and stop hurting the sentiments of others in the name of unbridled freedom of expression, in order to achieve the larger objective of peaceful existence.

Yet the suffering is far from over.

Officials said 202 people had been wounded in the attack, including many children.

France is observing three days of national mourning in homage to the victims.

A couple who decided not to go to the Nice fireworks display said they had a lucky escape, as they described horrific images of bodies in the street after the terror attack.

The Nice regional administration defended its security measures, but acknowledged that the truck driver was able to barrel past a barricade of police vehicles by simply driving onto a sidewalk. Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll warned against attempts to divide the country, calling for “unity and cohesion”. France is heading into elections next year, and the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande is facing multiple challengers, from within his own Socialist Party, from the right-wing Republicans and from the far-right National Front.