Islamic State claims responsibility for Nice attack

The particular wording of the statement – not claiming the attack as an outright act of ISIS, but noting that the attacker was responding to calls to act against the coalition – mirrors ISIS’ language in statements following the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, when it claimed gunman Omar Mateen as a “soldier”.

Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, rammed a 19-tonne truck into a large crowd as July 14 fireworks were ending in the French Riviera city. They were thought to be known to the killer.

Clara Casciana was one of the people listed as missing early Friday morning. The prosecutor said the suspect’s ex-wife was taken in for questioning.

Relatives and neighbors in Bouhlel’s hometown of Msaken outside the coast city of Sousse said he was sporty and had shown no sign of being radicalized, including when he last returned for the wedding of a sister four years ago.

IS also claimed responsibility for the November 13 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.

Nice-Matin journalist Damien Allemand had been watching the firework display when the truck tore by.

Meanwhile, Nice’s residents are reeling from the attack, as Eleanor reports.

Witnesses described seeing Bouhlel purposely steer the truck to hit families as they tried to flee. “It was just mayhem”.

He said it went from “pure happiness to fear”.

Hollande was due to meet his security chiefs on Saturday and the country would observe a minute of silence at midday.

Mourners gather near the scene where a massive truck carrying firearms plowed through a crowd of revelers on Thursday night in the southern city of Nice, where people were celebrating Bastille Day, a French national holiday.

The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) issued a statement encouraging people to check with their tour operators before heading to France. But Cazeneuve said that high security had been assured in the region – including at the Cannes Film Festival and the Nice Carnival. “Physical and psychological wounds will be slow to heal but I call on the French people to stand strong and united against these acts of hatred”, said EU Parliament President Martin Schulz.

He said: “We are a bit wary of bomb attacks so we are used to the security”. One of whom is 10-years-old, but his identity remains unknown, since authorities are still trying to find family members. “He would become angry and he shouted… he would break anything he saw in front of him”, Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej-Bouhlel said in Tunisian. He was not a Muslim.

“I saw his face”, Lambert told The Associated Press.

French investigators have not disclosed any direct evidence linking Bouhlel with jihadism, although the militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday.

He said people thought Bouhlel had psychological problems.

Corman, a hairdresser, said she had been to see the fireworks with her family on Thursday evening and was shocked by what happened, even more so when police stormed the building the next day.

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said she knew Bouhlel’s wife and described her as a “really lovely woman, who doesn’t deserve all this”.

The child’s aunt Tiava Banner sent out an appeal on Facebook, pleading for information about her nephew. “He was cold and never spoke to anybody”, she said.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the evening news that Bouhlel was “one way or another” linked to radical Islam.

The media added that the detainees noticed that Bouhlel stopped drinking alcohol.

“We are now confronted with individuals open to IS’s message to engage in extremely violent actions without necessarily having been trained or having the weapons to carry out a mass (casualty) attack”.