Updated | At least 84 people have died after a truck drove through a crowd of people celebrating France’s national day in the southern city of Nice. Newspaper Nice-Matin quoted unidentified sources as saying the driver was a 31-year-old local of Tunisian origin. He was married with three children and reportedly in the process of a divorce.
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The truck driven by the Nice, France, terrorist was riddled with bullets.
French media quoting neighbors described him as solitary, quiet and non-religious person.
In both attacks, at least some of the attackers had been known to French anti-terror forces and had been on terror watch lists.
“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”.
Ranstorp said that while the attack had some of the markings of a terror attack, it was also astonishingly simple.
French President Francois Hollande (right), attends a meeting at the Prefecture the day after the Bastille Day truck attack.
People were observing Bastille Day: the anniversary of a mob storming a looming fortress that held political prisoners two days after the French Revolution in Paris started in 1789.
US President Barack Obama condemned “what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack”, although no group had claimed responsibility for the incident.
She continued: “We are working urgently to establish whether any British nationals were caught up in the attack”.
The regional president, Christian Estrosi, told BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him”.
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.
One told broadcaster BFMTV that he saw other men with guns in the truck. A second suspect is now on the run according to French authorities. A local government official said weapons and grenades were found inside the 25-tonne, unmarked articulated truck.
Theresa May has announced Britain’s security measures are being reviewed following the attack in Nice. The attack came just hours after President Hollande said the national state of emergency that has been in place since last year’s deadly terror assault in Paris, was slated to end on July 26. Among items recovered from inside were an identity card, mobile phone and bank card, all linked to the driver. “One was killed by the truck, the other lightly injured, she’s got broken toes and some other minor injuries”, Tyurina said. A senior US military official told NBC News that guns and explosives were found in the truck.
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve meanwhile headed straight to Nice.
Investigators have not discovered any link between Bouhlel and terrorist groups.
Flags have been lowered across France and music events planned for Friday and Saturday have been canceled.
Four people are killed in a shooting at the Jewish Museum in central Brussels.
“France is a great country and a great democracy and we will not allow ourselves to be destabilised”, he added.
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The United Nations Security Council issued a statement condemning the “barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack” and underlined “the need to bring the perpetrators of these terrorist acts to justice”. The center of Nice is 22 kilometers (14 miles) from the Italian border.
