Eight people are dead and 15 have been injured after a truck mounted a bicycle path in lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, mowing down cyclists and runners.

Though the IS has not claimed the attack that also injured almost a dozen others, CNN reported that authorities had found a note in English that stated the suspect had carried it out in the name of the terror network led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Police say the attack that transformed a popular New York City bike path along the Hudson River into a scene of terror was perpetrated by a lone man they consider a terrorist.

A family friend described the suspect as calm and hard-working, while President Donald Trump derided him as “sick and deranged.” A picture of the man’s life only just began to emerge in the immediate hours after the Tuesday attack that killed at eight people and injured 15 more.

The truck attack in Manhattan by an Uzbek man that killed eight people was carried out in a manner that was a virtual replay of instructions for such assaults in an Islamic State magazine last year.

In its November 2016 issue of Rumiyah magazine, the IS had given detailed instructions for carrying out truck attacks in an article titled “Just terror tactics”. Ironically, the article featured a photo of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, the world’s largest parade, with a caption describing it as “An excellent target”.

Officials who were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity identified the attacker as 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov from the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan. He came to the US in 2010.

Authorities said Saipov had a Florida driver’s licence and some public records showed an address for him at a Tampa apartment complex.

A friend who met Saipov in Florida, Kobiljon Matkarov, told The New York Times and the New York Post that he seemed like a “very good guy.” “My kids like him too. He is always playing with them,” Matkarov told the Post.

Officials said Saipov was living recently in New Jersey, where he allegedly rented a Home Depot pickup truck an hour before driving it onto the bike path.

The ride-hailing company Uber said Saipov passed its background check and drove for the service for six months, making more than 1,400 trips.

The company said it banned him from the service after the attack. It said it was in touch with the FBI and offered its assistance and that it was reviewing Saipov’s driving history but found no related safety reports.

Records show Saipov was a commercial truck driver who formed a pair of businesses in Ohio. The first business, Sayf Motors Inc., used the address of a family friend near Cincinnati with whom Saipov had stayed for a couple of weeks after his arrival in the country.

The second, Bright Auto LLC, used an address near Cleveland. A trucking industry website listed Saipov at a Paterson, New Jersey, address that authorities were searching Tuesday night. Court records related to trucking-related infractions list Saipov with addresses in Paterson and the Cleveland suburbs.

According to the records, a warrant was issued for Saipov’s arrest in April 2016 when he missed a hearing on a misdemeanour for not having the right brakes on his vehicle. He resolved the case in November 2016 by pleading guilty and paying $200 in fines and court costs.

A marriage licence filed in Summit County, Ohio, lists a man by the name of Sayfulloh Saipov marrying Nozima Odilova on April 12, 2013. It lists the same Cleveland-area apartment noted as the headquarters of Bright Auto LLC.

The licence lists Saipov as a truck driver. His wife is about six years younger. Both list Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as their hometown.