NICE, France_Islamic State Saturday claimed responsibility for the truck rampage in Nice that killed at least 84 people, and the country's top security official for the first time cited the possibility that the slain attacker may have been "radicalized."
Islamic State's claim, carried by the group's Amaq news agency, may have simply been an opportunistic bid to capitalize on worldwide publicity accompanying the third major strike on French soil in the past year and a half. Amaq cited a "security source" in the radical group as saying Thursday night's attack, which also injured more than 200 people, was carried out by "one of the soldiers of the Islamic State."
In Nice, still packed with Riviera vacationers, one side of the broad waterfront promenade where the attack took place reopening to the public. But wrenching signs of the attack remained, with some frantic families still searching for missing loved ones, and many victims still hospitalized, dozens of them gravely injured.
An enormous heap of flowers, some adorned with notes and messages, lay on the ground near police barricades. Riders in the Tour de France, the celebrated bicycle race, took off their helmets and observed a moment of silence for the victims before embarking on Saturday's route. The Eiffel Tower was lit Friday night with the tricolors in a symbol of solidarity.
There was growing public anger over the perception that the huge holiday gathering on the Promenade des Anglais had been too lightly guarded for such a tempting target, particularly in light of relatively recent bloodshed, like the devastating attacks in Paris eight months earlier.
Authorities tried to determine the motive of the attacker, who died from police gunfire. He was identified as Tunisian-born driver-deliveryman Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said investigators believed that Bouhlel had "radicalized his views very rapidly," but gave no details about evidence pointing to an ideological motive.
The French prosecutor said Saturday that five people were in custody in connection with the attacks, but authorities have not publicly disclosed any sign that any of them were accomplices to Bouhlel. Authorities say he rented the commercial delivery truck that he drove onto the crowded coastal boulevard, mowing down spectators who had gathered for the Bastille Day fireworks display.
France struggled to come to terms with the notion that crude weapons such as a 19-ton truck could be wielded in such lethal fashion _ and Cazeneuve suggested that such attacks held special appeal to untrained "individuals who are responding positively to the messages issued by the Islamic State."
Despite round-the-clock efforts to identify bodies and notify next of kin, some families still were uncertain of their relatives' fate.
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(Harven is a special correspondent. King, aTimes staff writer, reported from Washington. Special correspondent Nabih Bulos contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.)
