He visited wounded people in two hospitals, including one where officials had treated about 50 children and teenagers for a wide range of injuries.
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“Even after all France has endured, this attack is a huge shock”, Agnes Poirier writes in The Guardian. The witness said the driver mowed people down, accelerating as he hit them. “Smashed children’s strollers, an uneaten baguette and other debris strewn about the promenade”.
Sean Copeland, 51, and his son, Brodie, 11, were vacationing with their family, said Jess Davis, who is friends with Meagan Copeland, Sean Copeland’s daughter.
“This attack may nonetheless contribute to France’s sense that, with Islamist attacks on the rise and its old ally in the United Kingdom apparently in retreat, it has to take a more hawkish and assertive line to protect its citizens”, said Richard Gowan, New York-based fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Police also searched the Nice apartment of Bouhlel.
A small number of Britons are reported to be injured, but their condition is not known.
Hollande told reporters Friday that about 50 people were still “between life and death” after the attack. “They clearly saw he was a danger, because that truck should never have been on the road”, Gutjahr said. However, two US officials said they had no information at this point about whether militants were involved in the Nice incident. “They don’t know if they are dead or merely separated”.
Nice-Matin, a local newspaper, and French TV station BFM have preliminarily identified the driver as a 31-year-old Nice resident of Tunisian origin, BFM citing a police source.
Bouhlel was reportedly married with three children and worked as a delivery driver. His apartment has since been raided by French investigators. “I expect it to be unveiled, discovered and kept up to date”. Supporters of the Islamic State, however, took to social media to cheer the attack, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity.
“The multiplicity of operating modes is what makes Daesh (Islamic State) stand out”, criminologist Alain Bauer told RTL radio.
World leaders have condemned the attacks and offered their support and solidarity to President Francois Hollande and the French people. Outside of the consulate, there is a sign that reads, “Pray for Nice”. “I ask God to convert the hearts of the violent blinded by hate”, he tweeted.
And again, for the third time in 18 months, a battered France will fly its flags at half-staff to mourn the victims of yet another deadly terrorist attack on its soil. “I won’t forget the look of this policewoman who intercepted the killer”. He said a handgun was found inside the truck, along with multiple fake guns and a fake grenade. “Because it” was Bastille Day, celebrating freedom.
Video filmed by a German television crew shows the lorry breaching a traffic cordon before being fired upon by French police.
Video shot by bystanders shows the truck coming under police gunfire as it drives through an intersection into the pedestrian promenade.
An ambulance and police officers are seen after a truck drove onto the sidewalk and killed at least 80 in France.
“Emergency staff came in the middle of the night to intervene to save lives”, he said. He added: “Why Nice?”
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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. “In such circumstances, we must show our absolute vigilance and determination”, he said.
