PARIS — Links between the Nice truck attacker and “terrorist networks”, including the Islamic State group which has claimed the killings, “have not yet been established by the investigation”, France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Monday (July 18).

“We cannot exclude that an unbalanced and very violent individual” has been “through a rapid radicalisation, committed to this absolutely despicable crime” which killed 84 people, Mr Cazeneuve told France’s RTL radio.

Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the seaside city of Nice last Thursday night, killing 84 people and injuring about 300.

The Islamic State group said one of its “soldiers” carried out the attack in response to its calls to target countries from the US-led coalition engaged in airstrikes against the group.

The attack was the third major terror strike on France in 18 months, and Mr Cazeneuve hit out at opposition politicians who have fiercely criticised the government for not doing enough to stop the bloodshed.

Former president and main opposition leader Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday that “everything that should have been done the past 18 months was not done”.

Mr Bernard Cazeneuve described the politician’s comments as “shameful”.

“Certain members of the political class have not respected the mourning period. Arguments broke out right away which personally saddens and shocks me,” he said. AFP