Agencies
Nice, July 15: Bodies flew “like bowling pins” and people screamed in terror and fled in every direction as a killer truck ploughed through a crowd at Bastille Day celebrations in this French city, killing 84 people in an unprecedented terror attack.
Many who survived the horrific Thursday night carnage at Promenade des Anglais, the main street in Nice, recalled how the heavy duty white colour truck drove into unsuspecting men, women and children, crushing everyone.
In no time, joyous scenes turned into blood-curdling horror, French and other media reports quoted witnesses as saying.
Journalist Damien Allemand, like countless others, had just finished enjoying the fireworks and was watching kids throw rocks in the sea when, suddenly, everything went wrong.When he heard the first screams from a distance, Allemand thought some fireworks may have gone out of control.
“A fraction of a second later, a huge white truck flew by at a crazy speed, driving over people, twisting the wheel to cut down the maximum number of people,” he said, recalling those deathly moments. “I saw bodies fly like bowling pins along its path. Heard noises, screaming that I will never forget. I was frozen with fear,” he wrote in a post.
As people began to run in different directions, many not knowing why except that something was dangerously wrong, the frightened Allemand, like hundreds more, took refuge in one of the many roadside restaurants. When he came out, he bumped into a friend, Raymond, around 50, who was in tears and who gasped: “There are dead bodies everywhere.” Indeed there were, every five metres, and limbs. And lots of blood.
Not satisfied with running over people, the killer driver — identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin — opened fire at revellers before police shot him dead. Dominique Molina was on a hotel balcony when she heard “banging sounds” the truck made as it ran over people. She heard shrieking and saw flocks of people run frantically among fallen bodies. Her husband Tony said they saw at least 10 bodies strewn on the street. “These bodies kind of sat. It was sad, because there were families lying down, crying next to these bodies.”
Maryam Violet was at a restaurant when a frightened mob ran into it to take shelter. Confused, she went out and couldn’t believe her eyes. “I saw … a lot of single dead bodies with no one around them,” she told CNN. There were also fallen bicycles, street lamps and debris everywhere. There were disturbing videos of the crowd jumping into the sea to save their lives, BFMTV reported. Another video showed people screaming as well as running everywhere.
An American witness told journalists that he was standing 15 feet away as the truck drove into the crowd “mowing bodies over” and accelerating as it hit the victims. Among the first to die was a middle-aged Muslim woman. Two of her sons and other family members stood around her body, weeping. So numerous were the bodies that to protect their dignity, people covered some of them with table-cloths snatched from nearby restaurants.
It later transpired that the truck had come from a side street near a children’s hospital, taken a left and mounted the sidewalk opposite a row of balconied seaside villas and apartment buildings. Although it was night, the trucks’ headlights were off. And there was no honking. “Nobody in the way stood a chance,” said one man, Pierre Roux. The beach attendants were the first to reach the scene. They brought water for the wounded and towels to spread over the dead. By the time police officers arrived, it was all over. All they could do, after killing the truck driver, was to direct the shell-shocked survivors where to go.
Three days of national mourning in France
Paris: France Friday announced three days of national mourning after the terror attack. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the national mourning would be observed from Saturday, July 16-18. Flags on government buildings will fly at half-mast. “We would like to tell the French people that we will never give in,” Valls said outside the Élysée Palace in Paris. “Terrorism, as we’ve been saying for so long, is a threat that weighs heavily on France, and will still weigh [heavily] for a long time,” he said, adding that France will need to learn to live with terrorist attacks. “France, once again, has been hit in its soul, the 14th of July, our National Day. They wanted to attack the unity of the French nation.” Hundreds were out on the streets, celebrating Bastille Day, France’s answer to the US’ July 4th Independence Day, with fireworks and a beachfront concert in Nice when the carnage took place.
Two Americans killed in Nice attack
Moscow: Two American citizens were killed in the truck attack in Nice, which has left at least 84 people dead, the US State Department spokesman said Friday. “At this time, we are aware of and can confirm two US citizens were killed in the attack in Nice July 14, 2016,” spokesman John Kirby said. “We express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of those killed.” A Texas-based newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, reported that 51-year-old Sean Copeland and his 11-year-old son Brodie were among those killed in Nice.
Sadiq Khan reviewing London’s safety
London: London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Friday he was reassessing security levels in the British capital in the wake of the Bastille Day attack in Nice. Offering his sympathies to the people of Nice over the “unspeakable act of terror on a day of celebration”, Khan said: “Friday we will be reviewing our own safety measures in light of this attack.” Speaking during a visit to Gatwick Airport he added: “Londoners Friday stand united with Nice and all of France in our grief. “They (terrorists) will not win. Not in France, not in London, not anywhere. “We will defeat their poisonous and twisted ideology.”
Two children killed
Nice : At least two children died and about 50 were hospitalised Friday after a man smashed a truck into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice. Two children died during surgery at a paediatric hospital close the scene of the attack, and others were “hanging between life and death,” a hospital official said. Around 50 children were being treated, the official said.
Muslim, Arab leaders condemn Nice attack
Cairo: Leading Muslim clerics joined Arab leaders Friday in condemning a truck attack that killed at least 84 revellers in the Mediterranean resort of Nice on France’s national holiday. Sunni Islam’s leading centre of learning, Al-Azhar, said the “vile terrorist attack” contradicted Islam and called for “uniting efforts to defeat terrorism and rid the world of its evil.” Tunisia said that the attacker, who police said held joint French-Tunisian citizenship, had committed an act of “extreme cowardice” and expressed solidarity with France against the “scourge of terrorism.” Prominent Egyptian Muslim cleric Shawki Allam condemned the assailant as an “extremist.” The six Gulf Arab states issued a joint statement saying that they “strongly” condemned the “terrorist” act in Nice. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned “in the strongest terms the vile terrorist attack,” his office said. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit denounced the “craven terrorist attack,” his spokesman said.
Britain’s security chiefs huddle
London: British Prime Minister Theresa May called an emergency national security meeting Friday after the Bastille Day attack in the French city of Nice. May, who was due later Friday in Scotland, said she had asked her deputy national security adviser to chair the COBRA emergencies committee, which groups top ministers and security chiefs. The meeting was aimed at reviewing “what we know and what we can do to help”, she said in a statement, expressing shock over the “horrifying attack”. A government spokeswoman said there had been a “small number of injured” British nationals.
Attacker formally identified
Nice: The driver of the truck that smashed into a crowd watching fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing at least 84, has been formally identified, police sources said today. He is a 31-year-old Franco-Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the vehicle after the attack on France’s July 14 national holiday. Police have not yet released the attacker’s name, but they said he lived in Nice. Other sources said previously he was already known to police for minor criminal offences.
Pakistan, Australia condemn attack
Islamabad/ Melbourne: Pakistan Friday condemned the terrorist attack in France that killed 84 people as “barbaric and cowardly”. “The Government of Pakistan condemns, in strongest terms, the barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack on men, women and children who were celebrating their National Day in the French city of Nice that resulted in the loss of tens of innocent lives and injuries to scores of others,” Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement. Australia also has condemned Friday’s deadly terror attack. Described the attack on Bastille Day as a “murderous act of terror”, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said, “The ANZACS of Friday were leading the Bastille Day Parade in Paris — a recognition of the sacrifice and heroism of a century ago and also of our resolute solidarity with the people of France in the struggle against Islamist terrorism today,” he said in a statement. “Our deepest sympathies and condolences are with the people of France. Our nations are united in freedom’s cause today, just as we were a hundred years ago,” he said. Issuing an official statement, foreign minister Julie Bishop said, “Once again we stand resolutely with the people of France. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the victims and their families”.
UN reaction
United Nations: The UN Friday condemned the “barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack” in France that killed at least 84 people, including children, and underlined the need to bring the perpetrators to justice. The 15-member UN Security Council reaffirmed that, “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security”. “The members of the Security Council condemns in the strongest terms the barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack on Bastille Day,” the UNSC said in a statement. Condemning the terrorist attack, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday stressed on the need to intensify “regional and international efforts” to combat terrorism and violent extremism.
Motorcyclist crushed trying to stop killer truck
Berlin: A German journalist who witnessed the Nice attack said he saw a motorcyclist chase the killer truck and try to enter the cabin but fell and ended up under the wheels. “I stood on the balcony, right on the Promenade des Anglais, and saw how people celebrated there, and how suddenly a truck drove through the crowd,” Richard Gutjahr, 42, who shot smartphone video footage of the bloody Bastille Day rampage, said Friday. “Surprisingly, he drove very slowly, not fast, he drove slowly and he was chased by a motorcyclist,” recounted Gutjahr by telephone. “The motorcyclist attempted to overtake the truck and even tried to open the driver’s door, but he fell and ended up under the wheels of the truck.” Gutjahr, a freelance journalist, said he also saw two police officers open fire on the truck. “Then the driver stepped on the accelerator and the truck sped up, accelerated and drove in a zig-zag course into the crowd. “In the next 15 to 20 seconds there were shots from several guns. I don’t know who shot at whom.” After that, “the panicked crowd ran in all directions. Those who could save themselves ran into the hotels, or sought security in the hotel entrances,” he said. “Right afterwards I personally saw 12 dead bodies, and it was already clear there would be more.”
FB helps find baby lost in Nice attack
Nice: An eight-month-old baby boy lost in the chaos after a truck rammed into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice killing at least 84 people was tracked down through Facebook Friday. Tiava Banner — who said she was not the mother of the baby — sent out an appeal on Facebook looking for any information on the whereabouts of the child who had been lost in his blue stroller when the rampaging truck sent hundreds fleeing in panic as they watched Bastille Day fireworks. The post was shared thousands of times until it was updated with: “Found! Thank you Facebook and all those who helped us.” A member of the family Friday said: “A young woman found him and took him home with her. She then went online and found the photo of the baby on Facebook.” The woman then contacted the baby’s parents.
Is IS behind the attack?
Right now it’s unconfirmed. However,Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium reports that IS terrorist accounts are posting about it. A tweet sent out by an IS-supporting Twitter account links the Nice attack as retaliation for the death of Abu Omar al-Shishani, a Georgian Chechen commander of the Islamic State that IS recently admitted had been killed, reports The Telegraph. Local resident Jimmy Ghazal reported that a truck loaded with gunmen crashed into a crowd. However, while the gunfire has been confirmed, NBC News reports that it was only one gunman in the truck. This does not mean he was acting alone.
