Tunisian man Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel killed 84 people when he drove a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice.
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An ISIS-linked news agency has claimed that Nice attacker Mohamed Bouhlel was a “soldier” of the terrorist group.
French investigators said they found an ammunition magazine, a fake pistol, replica Kalashnikov and M16 rifles and a dummy grenade in the truck’s cabin.
Jihadi chiefs have specifically called on global followers to carry out attacks against France, which has been one of the leading members of the coalition and has vowed to redouble its efforts to smash the terror group following the Nice atrocity.
The statement did not name the attacker, and the language implied that he may have acted independently.
“France was struck on the day of its national holiday, July 14, the symbol of liberty”, Hollande said.
It is unclear what real role the terrorist group had in the attack.
France on Saturday began three days of national mourning in homage to the victims – although that hasn’t stopped politicians from sniping at each other over who bore responsibility for the failing to stop the attack.
The statement came as the French prosecutor’s office confirmed five people are in custody over the Bastille day attack that killed at least 84 people when a truck rammed into crowds in the Riviera city.
It careered into families and friends listening to an orchestra or strolling above the Mediterranean beach towards the century-old grand Hotel Negresco.
Within minutes the attack was over, with Bouhlel dead in a hail of police gunfire.
Hollande, who has already extended a state of emergency by three months, is expected to assess all available options in response to the attack, which also injured more than 200 people, of whom 52 are critical. In March, he was given a six-month suspended sentence by a Nice court for a road-rage incident in which he attacked another driver with a wooden pallet.
Ahead of the claim by Islamic State, the militant Islamist group which grabbed control of swathes of Iraq and Syria but which is now under military pressure from forces opposed to it, French officials had not disclosed any direct evidence linking Bouhlel with the jihadism.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the attacker probably had links to radical Islam, but Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve cautioned it was too early to make the connection. “We have an individual who was not known to intelligence services”.
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Rebab, Bouhlel’s sister, said her brother had not been in the habit of calling the family.
