RIVIERA ATROCITY We felt something wasn’t right. We had to flee FRENCH PRESIDENT IN RALLYING CRY
8 Sunday Mail
A dad yesterday told how he ordered his family to leave the scene of the Nice terror attack minutes before Mohamed Bouhlel’s murderous rampage.
Tourist Gordon Stewart described how he had an “eerie feeling” and persuaded his wife Fiona and three children – Rayna, 10, Jaden, 13, and 15-year-old Lauren – to get away from the Promenade des Anglais.
The family, from Dundee, were enjoying the Bastille Day fireworks.
They had been standing 100 metres from where Bouhlel was eventually stopped and killed by armed police.
Gordon, pictured right, who was celebrating his 50th birthday, said: “We had been standing very close to where the truck finished up.
“The fireworks were finishing off but we all had a really eerie feeling something wasn’t right.
“We had a strong sense we needed to leave, so we did.
“Five minutes into the walk to our apartment, we heard what we thought were more fireworks going off. We later found out they were gun shots. “
It was only when they reached their apartment and turned on the news that they saw the harrowing scenes and realised what had happened.
Gordon, who is a pastor with Gates Church International in Dundee, said: “We had no idea up to that point.”
The couple paid their respects to the victims when they returned to the promenade with their children on Friday – the day after the atrocity.
Meanwhile, Lauren Jones and husband Eric told how they had been planning to watch the Bastille Day fireworks on the promenade in Nice – but a flight delay meant they arrived at their hotel in the middle of the horror.
The Edinburgh couple heard gunshots being fired and were caught up in the stampede of people running from the carnage.
After cutting short their holiday and returning home to Scotland, Lauren said they felt incredibly lucky to have escaped any harm.
Marketing consultant Lauren, 34, said: “We arrived in the area in the middle of it all. I had been so excited about seeing the fireworks and was moaning to Eric about how we’d miss them by the time the bus to our hotel got in. There were people just grabbing children and running.”
The couple got a email from airline easyJet within hours of the horror advising them they could fly home the following day if they didn’t want to stay in Nice.
Rugby coach Eric, 35, and Lauren flew back to Scotland just 24 hours after leaving Edinburgh.