The IS claim of responsibility came after the French authorities said Bouhlel had no known links with terrorists, unlike those behind previous attacks in Paris.
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In total, six people now remain in custody related to the truck attack, but officials have provided no details about their identities.
Bouhlel rented the refrigerated truck on July 11, purchased a pistol and was seen on closed-circuit TV footage visiting the promenade in the following days, according to the security official, who wasn’t authorized to be publicly named speaking about an ongoing investigation.
Many family members have been frustrated by a lack of information about their missing loved ones.
While authorities have said little publicly about their investigation, a French security official told The Associated Press on Sunday that Bouhlel sold his auto just before the attack, which ended only when he was killed by police.
Cazeneuve has rejected criticism that police were poorly prepared for such an attack, though only 60 officers were on duty to protect the crowd of 30,000 on the night of the killings. His mobile phone sent a test that said “bring more weapons, bring him in at 5 C”, on Thursday at 10:27 p.m., according to the French television station BFMTV.
Of those, 18 are in life-threatening condition – including one child, she said.
On the second day of national mourning, the Russian Orthodox Church in Nice held an emotional mass for the victims.
Francis told the public in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday that “sorrow is great in our hearts” for the massacre in the southern French city last week, and prayed that God sustain the wounded and comfort relatives.
In a statement Saturday, it said “the person. carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition which is fighting the Islamic State”.
A report in the Nice Matin newspaper on Sunday said investigators had found no radicalization material in his flat, although they were still looking at his telephone and his computer.
“Terrorism will be part of our daily lives for a long time”, he said.
One of those held is a 22-year-old suspected of lending logistical support to Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, said his lawyer Jean-Pascal Padovani.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday the father-of-3, who had been living in Nice for years, “seemed to have been radicalized very quickly, from what his friends and family” told police.
The arrests follow raids across Nice as police attempt to piece together the killer’s terror network. Neighbors told The Associated Press that the attacker’s estranged wife was among them.
“Daesh provides unbalanced individuals with an ideological kit that gives their acts meaning”, Valls said, using an Arab acronym for the Islamic State group. Some spots are still identifiable by bloodstains.
Many families are angry that they couldn’t find information about missing loved ones, and many are angry at police for not preventing the deadly attack despite France being under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks past year in Paris.
Joggers, bikers and sunbathers on Sunday cruised along the pedestrian walkway along the glistening Mediterranean Sea, where well-wishers placed flowers, French flags, stuffed animals and candles.
Bouhlel drove for two kilometres down the seafront boulevard, swerving from side to side to maximise the number of casualities, before finally being shot dead by police.
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Cazeneuve also noted the carnage on the Promenade des Anglais bore none of the hallmarks of previous attacks such as the assault on the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery in Paris or the coordinated attacks on Paris last November.
