The call came as the government faces searing criticism over the Thursday attack, in which Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd of people who had been watching Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city. A total of 303 people were taken to hospital following the attacks, the French health department said on Saturday.
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The attacks, along with one in Brussels four months ago, have shocked Western Europe, already anxious over security challenges from mass immigration, open borders and pockets of Islamist radicalism.
Amaq Agency, a news agency linked to IS, said: “He did the attack in response to calls to target the citizens of the coalition that is fighting the Islamic State”.
The veracity of the group’s claim couldn’t immediately be determined, but French officials didn’t dispute it.
“The investigation will establish the facts, but we know now that the killer was radicalized very quickly”, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in an interview with newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
“Are you defending him?” the man said, incredulously.
France on Saturday began three days of national mourning in homage to the victims – although that didn’t stop politicians from sniping at each other over who bore responsibility for the failing to stop the attack.
The Islamic State has previously claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks even when there wasn’t any clear indication that the group played a role.
A 31-year-old Tunisian man drove a truck into crowds of people celebrating France’s national holiday, killing 84 people and maiming and wounding many others.
However, this morning, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said it appeared that Lahouaiej Bouhlel became an extremist very quickly.
His identification papers were found in the vehicle after police had shot him dead halting the massacre which had lasted for around two kilometres.
The attacker’s father, who lives in Msaken, eastern Tunisia, said his son had suffered from depression and had “no links” to religion.
The first driver shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) as he drove into people in the eastern city of Dijon, injuring 13. The man was “entirely unknown by the intelligence services, whether nationally or locally”, French prosecutor Francois Molins said.
One said: ‘After release, one, who we think is extremely unsafe, went to Syria, and we are checking if one was in Nice, but he definitely flew to Europe from Tunisia. In all, 85 people are still hospitalized after the attack, 18 of them in critical condition.
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At least 10 children were among the dead as well as tourists from the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland and Germany.
