Britain’s emergency committee met on Friday to discuss its response to the attack in Nice where a gunman killed more than 80 people by driving a heavy truck at high speed into a crowd gathered to watch a Bastille Day celebration.
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Although the road was cordoned off, the driver managed to cover more than a mile along the packed waterfront strip before being shot by police.
The driver of the truck has been identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old French-Tunisian man. It hasn’t been confirmed that he was directly linked to ISIS, but the terror group has been celebrating the attack.
China staunchly supports the French government to defend its national security, and stands ready to work with France to deepen their cooperation in combating terrorism, so as to safeguard peace and security of the two countries and the world at large.
On Friday morning, police forensics officers were combing through the truck, which remained where it stopped, its front badly damaged and riddled with bullet holes, and its tyres burst.
A lone doll lay abandoned on the promenade where families celebrated the holiday just hours earlier.
“We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around”, he said.
On Twitter, people mobilised fast, with citizens offering safe refuge under the hashtag #PortesOuvertesNice (Nice Open Doors).
Pictures of a young girl with braces or a teenager pulling a amusing face were among those posted.
The vicious attack is France’s third major terrorist attack in 18 months. Estrosi said some of the city’s 1,200 security cameras had pinpointed the moment the attacker boarded the truck, far from the seaside “in the hills of Nice” and could follow his path to the promenade. Hollande announced a series of measures to bolster security.
“Bodies everywhere.” He said the driver emerged with a gun and started shooting.
“My partner took my hand immediately and we started running with everybody and honestly in my head I had no idea what was going on and the music was so loud and I didn’t really see a truck, but just people running and screaming and crying and people carrying their children, and it was just very frightening”. I saw a guy in the street, we were trying to speak to the driver to get him to stop.
Images on television showed the Promenade Des Anglais sealed off, crawling with police and ambulances and authorities from the local Alpes-Maritimes prefecture urged residents to stay indoors.
Over the past week, France had been breathing a sigh of relief after successfully hosting the month-long Euro 2016 football championship, which passed off without incident despite fears of attacks. The Islamic State group carried out the November 2015 attacks, sending a group of largely French-speaking men to strike at France’s national stadium, bars and cafes and the Bataclan concert venue.
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– United States presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said: “Every American stands in strong solidarity with the people of France, and we say with one voice: we will not be intimidated”.
