Several people connected to Bouhlel have been arrested after the attack, French authorities said, without specifying whether they are suspected of a role in the attack or were simply being held for questioning.
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French President François Hollande will chair a meeting with his inner security cabinet to discuss the response to Thursday’s attack in the French resort city of Nice, when a truck loaded with weapons ploughed through a crowd and killed at least 84 people.
The man, who was driving the truck, was identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Nice resident of Tunisian descent.
“The claims underline a pattern in which ISIS seeks to inspire sympathizers to carry out attacks – with or without operational support from the group – and then claims responsibility for the carnage after the fact”.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French coastal city on Thursday night.
Video from Nice showed armed police chasing the truck on foot as it raced along a seaside street, running down people who had been heading home after a Bastille Day fireworks display.
On Friday Prime Minister Manuel Valls linked the attack to religious extremism.
A neighbour gave her impressions of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel to the BBC, telling the broadcaster that he would look at her family strangely and was “frankly, not normal”.
The massacre again prompted questions as to why France is a persistent target for attacks and what can be done to prevent such unsophisticated assaults.
According to some reports, the attacker spent the nine hours in his truck waiting for the revelers to turn out for the evening before plowing his vehicle into the crowd.
The New York Times reported 84 casualties from the attack so far, and 303 injured people, 26 of whom are in intensive care, as of Saturday morning.
Not much is known about Bouhlel or if he had any official ties to groups, but police are investigating the attack as a terrorist incident.
Mr Molins told reporters Bouhlel had shot three police officers before he was killed and his body fell onto the passenger seat.
France has declared three days of national mourning following the atrocity, which comes after attacks in November in Paris in which 130 died and in January 2015 that killed 17.
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“We have an enemy who is going to continue to strike all the people, all the countries who have freedom as a fundamental value”, Hollande said.
