Bastille Day horror: Terror truck kills 84 in France
NICE – A large truck plowed through revelers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks in this French town, killing at least 84 people and sending others fleeing into the sea as it bore down for more than a mile along the Riviera city’s famed waterfront promenade.
The driver was killed by police and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the Thursday night attack on France’s national holiday, which rocked a nation still dealing with the aftermath of two attacks in Paris last year that killed a total of 147 people.
Two French police officials say identity papers found alongside the attacker behind the killing spree in Nice belonged to a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian descent with previous misdemeanor convictions but no known link to extremist groups.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said yesterday that the papers were those of a Nice resident. They cautioned that DNA and identity checks with acquaintances were pending to fully verify the identity.
“Terrorism is a threat that weighs heavily upon France and will continue to weigh for a long time,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after an emergency government meet- ing Friday. “We are facing a war that terrorism has brought to us. The goal of terrorists is to instill fear and panic. And France is a great country, and a great democracy that will not allow itself to be destabilized.”
Two Americans are among the dead in the attack.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby says the pair was among those killed in Nice. Kirby didn’t identify the individuals by name, citing privacy concerns. He says the US is providing assistance to those affected by the attack, while the embassy tries to account for all Americans in the Mediterranean city.
The truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of two kilometers, a lawmaker said, and broadcast footage showed a scene of horror up and down the promenade, with broken bodies splayed on the asphalt, some piled near one another, others bleeding onto the roadway or twisted into unnatural shapes.
Some tried to escape into the water, Eric Ciotti, a lawmaker for the region that includes Nice said yesterday, giving new details of the horrifying last minutes of the attack.
“A person jumped onto the truck to try to stop it,” Ciotti told Europe 1 radio. “It’s at that moment that the police were able to neutralize this terrorist. I won’t forget the look of this policewoman who intercepted the killer.”
Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native, told The Associated Press that he saw a truck drive into the crowd. “There was carnage on the road,” he said. “Bodies everywhere.” He said the driver emerged with a gun and started shooting.
The regional president, Christian Estrosi, told BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him.”
He said more than 10 children were among the dead.
Flags were lowered to halfstaff in Nice and in Paris, and Hollande extended the state of emergency imposed after the November bloodshed another three months. The government declared three days of national mourning to begin today.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who traveled to the scene, said police were trying to identify the driver. Ciotti said identification papers were found in the truck and that investigators were trying to determine whether they were legitimate.
Partiers in summer apparel ran for their lives down Nice’s palm tree-lined Promenade des Anglais, the famous seaside boulevard named for the English aristocrats who proposed its construction in the 19th century.
“France was struck on the day of its national holiday, July 14, the symbol of liberty,” President Francois Hollande said early yesterday, denouncing “this monstrosity” – a truck bearing down on citizens “with the intention of killing, smashing and massacring ... an absolute violence.”