Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the Associated Press near Nice’s Promenade du Paillon, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd and then witnessed the man emerge with a gun and start shooting.
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The man said the truck eventually stopped not far from the spot where he and his female Russian friend were standing when they heard the first screams on Thursday night.
Since the Islamic State attacks past year, major public events in France have been guarded by troops and armed police, but it appeared to have taken some minutes to halt the progress of the deadly truck as it tore along pavements and a pedestrian zone.
Australia’s political leaders have condemned the terror attack in the French city of Nice amid confirmation one Australian has been injured.
Anti-terrorism investigators have taken over the investigation into the Nice attack, Reuters reports.
An unanimous source told RIA Novosti that one Russian was killed in the Nice attack while another one was injured. This monstrosity of using a lorry to deliberately kill people, many people, who only came out to celebrate their national day.
Islamist terror groups, sometimes using native-French Muslims, have targeted France repeatedly in recent years and the use of vehicles and auto bombs are among their known tactics. Estrosi also asked residents to stay indoors immediately following the attack.
Local newspaper Nice-Matin posted photographs of the truck, its windshield starred by a score of bullets and its radiator grille destroyed.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May called the attack “a awful incident”, adding “we are shocked and concerned”.
Images being broadcast across French media showed revelers running 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.
“We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack”, Obama said.
Social media video showed people running through the streets in panic following the incident.
Transforming a vehicle into a simple but deadly weapon of terror – as happened to such bloody effect in Nice on Thursday (July 14) – is a tactic well known to intelligence agencies.
Among the 80 killed, several were children, Hollande said.
“We were eating and a huge crowd ran into us and we didn’t know what was going on”, said Maryam Violet.
“On behalf of the American people, I condemn in the strongest terms what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France, which killed and wounded dozens of innocent civilians”, Obama said in a statement.
The attack has seen an announcement by the French President that a state of emergency would be extended by three months.
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Sebastien Humbert, a regional police prefect, told BFM TV the truck traveled “over a long distance, which explains this extremely heavy toll”. I looked towards the truck and I thought it was a bit odd, because the roads were shut down and there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people walking along.
