“A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a insane speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people”, he said.
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“Although yesterday’s attack has not been claimed, this sort of thing fits in perfectly with calls for murder from such terrorist organisations”. Simpson said the institution was also offering counseling to parents and siblings.
In addition to 84 deaths, around 50 people are said to be “between life and death” after the attack. Chief Prosecutor Francois Molins said that 202 people were wounded in the attack.
A man named as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove his vehicle more than one mile along the coastal French city’s Promenade de Anglais, sending hundreds of people fleeing in horror.
French President Francois Hollande is to chair crisis talks with his inner security cabinet following Thursday’s attack in Nice that killed 84 people.
As the world reacted to what is the eighth terror attacks in 19 months, vigils were held in Australia to commemorate the victims of the attack.
The Lenval Foundation hospital has one of France’s largest pediatric emergency units, but Simpson said it asked the families of children it was already treating to pick up their kids so as to free up rooms for attack victims.
He was known to the police as a petty criminal, but was “totally unknown to intelligence services… and was never flagged for signs of radicalisation”, the prosecutor added. The rampage ended when police shot dead the driver, who they say was armed with guns and explosives. He had three children.
Shortly after the attack on Thursday evening, French authorities said the incident was being investigated as terrorism. “You can’t even speak to them or comfort them”, he said.
One woman, Nataje, 52, said she heard a “boom” as the truck began accelerating into spectators on the Promenade des Anglais, the showpiece coastal road in the southern French city.
However Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s father insists the attacker had “nothing to do with religion”, revealing that his son didn’t pray, didn’t fast, drank alcohol and used drugs.
The truck’s windshield was punctured by a volley of bullets, possibly fired by police, but some witnesses said the driver opened fire before he set out on his fatal ride along a two-kilometer stretch of pavement.
“We pledge to stand with our French friends as we defend our nations against this scourge of terrorism and violence”, he said.
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The attack is the third of its kind in France since the beginning of 2015, and a state of emergency in place since 130 people were killed in and around Paris last November is to be extended for another three months.
