The driver, 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, shot dead by officers at the scene, was known to police for petty crimes but was not on a watch list of suspected militants. President Francois Hollande described the most seriously injured as being “between life and death”.
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It was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months.
New York’s Casey Kaplan Gallery uploaded a picture of Henri Matisse’s depiction of Nice’s beachside promenade, the site of the attack.
The Eiffel tower was to be lit up Friday night in tribute to the attack’s victims. A vacationing father and his young son from Lakeway, Texas. Amongst the victims were two German high school students from Berlin and their teacher. Others from Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Australia.
“We now realize that there was no protection for us”, said Karim Lourahri, 22, a butcher who witnessed the truck mow down several people.
A US student, Nicolas Leslie, 20, was missing, the University of California at Berkeley said in a statement.
The president of the region that includes Nice said the truck was loaded with arms and grenades and the driver was killed by police. “We are facing a war waged on us by terrorism”.
French citizens are clearly reaching their limit. “The police surrounded the auto and they kept shooting him until they were sure he’s dead”.
On January 7, 2015, two Islamist gunmen stormed the headquarters of the controversial satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing twelve people and injuring twelve before escaping.
This time, the French population had just relaxed after living for weeks on heightened alert during European soccer championships that concluded Sunday. On Friday, Hollande said it would be extended for three months instead, and he said he would boost France’s role in the Islamic State strongholds of Syria and Iraq.
Egyptian tourist Nader El Shafei said he tried imploring Bouhlel in Arabic through the attacker’s open window to stop what he was doing.
“We have an individual who was not known to intelligence services for activities linked to jihadism”. “And France is a great country, and a great democracy, that will not allow itself to be destabilized”.
Belgium has anticipated such risks, Mr Michel said, and is ready to protect its own national day festivities next Thursday.
His wife was arrested on Friday and taken for questioning, a police source said. He said Bouhlel had received a six-month prison sentence in March for a conviction for assault with a weapon, but other legal officials said his sentence was suspended because it was his first conviction.
Photographs after the carnage showed the truck, which had been hired on Monday, with its front badly damaged and riddled with bullet holes. Bouhlel took a swing at the motorist with a wooden beam, causing a deep wound, according to the lawyer’s account.
“I would say that there was no overall lack of police officers – but they were not well organized”, said Laure Teresi, 24, a friend of Chemmka. He thought, “The truck has a bomb or something or maybe he is a suicide guy”. Police found him dead in the passenger seat.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the evening news that Bouhlel was “one way or another” linked to radical Islam. “Very, very frightening”. He said it went from “pure happiness to fear”.
After the fireworks, Adrien Dobrescu, 54, who was visiting from Romania, heard more sharp bangs. He ran with a crowd as fast as he could off the promenade.
Later, she surveyed the area as forensic teams moved in. On another level, there was soul-searching once again about France’s overall security strategy.
After the bodies of victims had been borne away Friday, the macabre truck remained for hours.
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“On this Bastille Day, we are reminded of the extraordinary resilience and democratic values that have made France an inspiration to the entire world”, said US President Barack Obama, before ordering flags in the capital Washington to be flown at half mast.
