News / France

Daesh claims fatal attack in France’s Nice

Saturday, 16 July 2016 9:51 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 16 July 2016 10:00 AM ]

People gather around a makeshift memorial to pay tribute to the victims of a deadly attack in Nice, France, July 15, 2016. ©AFP

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in France’s southeastern city of Nice during the country’s national holiday, Bastille Day.

Amaq, a news outlet affiliated to Daesh, said in a statement via its Telegram account on Saturday that the person behind the assault was a member of the terror group.

“He carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the [US-led] coalition” allegedly fighting Daesh, the statement read.

On Thursday night, a truck driver ploughed through a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, killing 84 people and wounding 200 others.

The assailant, who was later shot dead by police, was identified as 31-year-old Franco-Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel.

The attacker’s father said he had suffered from “a nervous breakdown.”

“From 2002 to 2004, he had problems that caused a nervous breakdown. He would become angry and he shouted... he would break anything he saw in front of him,” Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej-Bouhlel said in Tunisia.

President Francois Hollande described the attack as being of an “undeniable terrorist nature,” adding that 50 of those injured in the attack are in critical condition.

Arrests over Nice massacre

In another development on Saturday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said five people were taken into custody over the Nice carnage.

French police secure the area as the investigation continues at the scene near the truck that ran into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France, July 15, 2016. ©Reuters

The identities of those arrested were not clear, but residents in the Nice neighborhood, where Bouhlel used to live, said his estranged wife had been taken away by police on Friday.

The arrests come as Hollande met with the head of the armed forces and ministers after calling a meeting of his top security advisors in the capital, Paris.

Also on Saturday a jazz festival, which was scheduled to be held in Nice between July 16 and July 20, was cancelled.

France is observing three days of national mourning in homage to the victims of the deadly Nice rampage.

The European country has been in a state of emergency since last November, when assailants struck at least six different venues in and around Paris, leaving 130 people dead and over 350 others injured. Daesh claimed responsibility for the horrendous assaults.

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