When police searched the vehicle, they found grenades and guns. No extremist groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hollande said in a statement that France was “under threat from Islamic terrorism”.
Advertisement
European Council President Donald Tusk, speaking in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, captured the global shock when he spoke of the “tragic paradox that the subject of #NiceAttack was the people celebrating liberty, equality and fraternity”. I heard gunfire, but didn’t know where it was coming from. Too loud. Then I saw the columns of fire trucks. It was perhaps 50 yards away. I take pictures, but can’t really believe what I am seeing in my viewfinder.
Paris A jihadist wearing a fake explosive belt attacked police officers in the Goutte d’Or district in Paris with a meat cleaver, while shouting “Allahu Akbar”. “I am the only one who went”.
“It zigzagged – you had no idea where it was going”.
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark earlier tweeted that the incident is “just horrible” and that she was thinking of “all those involved and their families”. The lorry ripped through everything. poles, trees.
Hollande also said it was not immediately clear whether the driver had accomplices.
“We just heard the screams”, he said.
Instead, horror – another indiscriminate mass murder on the street of a French city which, as before, took no account of the weak or the creed of those it killed. There is an eerie sense of unease and disbelief that jars with the attractive beachfront surroundings.
The driver was fatally shot by French police.
Some tried to escape into the water, Eric Ciotti, a lawmaker for the region that includes Nice said Friday, giving new details of the horrifying last minutes of the attack.
Witnesses to the crash reported a horrific scene.
Several children are among the 84 victims, while another 18 people are critically injured. Most people in his apartment building said they never talked to him.
It follows a call by so-called Islamic State (IS) spokesman Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani some months ago for IS followers to do exactly what this truck driver did. Some of the attackers were known to have trained in Syria or North Africa.
US-led airstrikes, including by French warplanes, are taking a particularly heavy toll there. A state of emergency imposed past year that was scheduled to expire was extended.
– ASIA-EUROPE SUMMIT STATEMENT in Mongolia: “We strongly condemn the heinous and cowardly terrorist attacks.We reaffirm our commitment to join forces to fight the plague of terrorism and underline the need to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks”. Obama trade rep confident Pacific deal passes this year Dozens killed after truck plows into crowd in France Trump aims to win over GOP with Pence pick MORE released a statement reinforcing the US relationship with France. A local government official of the Alp-Maritimes region recently noted that security officials were prepared for nuclear, chemical and bacteria weapons, and were rigorously checking ships in the harbor; attacks from the sea were of particular concern, he said.
“Times have changed and we should learn to live with terrorism”, he said.
Hollande also said he would activate those who had once served in the military and the gendarmerie to help relieve police and active-duty soldiers.
Mr Valls said later that the goal of terrorists was to “instil fear and panic”.
Advertisement
“But France is a great country and a great democracy that will not allow itself to be destabilised”, he said. He said he had directed his team to get in touch with French officials to assist with the investigation into the attack.
