Terrorists claim responsibility of Nice truck attack

chika ebuzor

July 17, 2016 12:01 PM

The 31-year old Tunisian, who lived locally, drove at a Bastille Day crowd on the waterfront of the French Riviera city on Thursday.

ISIS

Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for the truck attack in the French city of Nice and police arrested three more people after the carnage that claimed the lives of 84 people.

"The person who carried out the operation in Nice, France, to run down people was one of the soldiers of Islamic State.

"He carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State,’’ the statement said.

French authorities and media have yet to produce any evidence that the killer, Mohamed Bouhlel, was radicalised.

However, the interior ministry said it has started checking the claim.

Authorities had been working to find out what his motives were.

Meanwhile, he was not known to French intelligence sources for radicalisation.

Police sources said that the arrests, which came on top of two others since the killing including the attacker's wife, concerned his ``close entourage.’’

They were made in two different areas of Nice.

A Reuter’s reporter saw about 40 elite police raid a small apartment near the central station, where one individual was arrested.

The attack plunged France into new grief and fear just eight months after gunmen killed 130 people in Paris.

The truck zig-zagged along the seafront Promenade des Anglais for two kilometres as a fireworks display marking the French national day ended.

It was eventually stopped when police shot dead the driver.

chika ebuzor