Islamic State says its ‘soldier’ behind Nice truck attack

Hollande said “many foreigners and young children” were among those killed or injured. The official does not give his name.

The Aamaq news agency on Saturday cited a “security source” as saying “The person who carried out the operation in Nice, France, to run down people was one of the soldiers of Islamic State”, the news agency Amaq, which supports Islamic State, said via its Telegram account.

Two days after the atrocity, some families were still hunting for missing loved ones, going from hospital to hospital to find relatives who had disappeared in the bloody chaos of the truck’s rampage.

Speaking outside the high-rise block of flats on Boulevard Henri Sappia, where the suspect had previously lived with his family, Samiq, 19, who did not want to give his surname, said: “I never heard him speak about extremism, I can not believe that he was a member of Islamic State”.

He prayed that God “disperse every plan for terror and for death, so that no man dare spill more blood of his brother”.

As the three days of national mourning began, the French tricolour flew at half mast from public buildings and soldiers patrolled the major cities.

UPDATED 9.04PM Britain’s Daily Mirror reports Isis has now claimed responsibility for the Nice terror attack.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said a special terrorism vigilance force created after the 2015 attacks will be extended through the summer, with more deployments outside Paris and more attention to tourist sites and crowded events.

The Islamic State group “is encouraging individuals unknown to our services to stage attacks. that is without a doubt the case in the Nice attack”, he said Sunday.

Many are also angry at French police and authorities for not preventing the deadly attack, even though France was under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks past year in Paris.

Valls said he feared terrorism would continue to plague France for a long time.

An armed lorry driver mowed down crowds at a Bastille Day fireworks party in Nice, killing at least 84 people, many of them children.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it received more than 60 enquiries expressing concern about one or more Irish citizens in the area.

He also took a selfie at the wheel of the 19-tonne truck he used to plow into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day.

In total, six people now remain in custody related to the truck attack, but officials have provided no details about their identities.

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

When police examined the vehicle after the attack, they found a bicycle, an automatic pistol, two fake assault rifles, a nonfunctioning grenade, a mobile phone and some papers. Some spots are still identifiable by bloodstains.

When asked why the terrorists had chosen France as a target of their attacks, Alexei Filatov brought up the millions of migrants from North Africa who now live in France but have never become part of French society. Pained and outraged epitaphs are now written in blue maker on stones placed where police shot him dead.

The attack comes with France under a state of emergency following the Islamic State attacks in Paris in November that left 130 people dead.