The children are part of the 84 killed and 202 people wounded when a local man whom police identified as delivery driver Mohamed Bouhlel drove a huge truck through the holiday crowd Thursday night before police shot him dead. The truck’s windshield was riddled with bullets.
Advertisement
Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Friday drew a strong link to terrorism, despite the fact that no militant group had claimed responsibility for the attack and Bouhlel had no known ties to such organizations.
While no terror group has taken responsibility for the Nice attack, both al-Qaida and the Islamic State have called for vehicular assaults against Western countries in the event that more conventional weapons are inaccessible.
He said: “No country is immune to terrorism and we are united with our French and European partners as we deal with these threats to our countries and our way of life”.
Belgium, Germany and Italy stepped up security along their borders on Friday, in a measure of fears that the violence in France could spill into neighboring countries.
Following the security meeting, Hollande met with ministers at the Elysee Palace.
They said the man had hurled himself into the cab when the 20 tonne truck was held up by an obstruction. Broadcast footage showed a scene of horror along Nice’s famous promenade, with broken bodies splayed on the asphalt, some piled near one another, others bleeding onto the roadway or twisted into unnatural shapes.
Neighbors in his apartment building told CNN’s Nic Robertson they often saw him walking or riding his bicycle to a cafe for a cup of coffee.
Police are seen chasing the tuck moments before deadth run.
“It was such a nice atmosphere before this started”, recalled Sanchia Lambert, a tourist from Sweden who had come to visit family in Nice.
Flags were lowered to half-staff in Nice, Paris, Brussels and many capitals across Europe. Following the attack, he said it would be extended by a further three months.
So far, the picture that has emerged is similar to those responsible for the Paris and Belgium attacks: a solitary man with a history of petty crime, who neighbours said never showed much interest in religion.
Ciotti said identification papers were found in the truck and that investigators were trying to determine whether they were legitimate.
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said the Nice attack – which he called barbaric and cowardly – resembled the Sousse attack in June 2015, according to the Tunisian News Agency.
Mr Estrosi said: ‘Attacks aren’t prepared alone. Attacks are prepared with accomplices’. “There is a chain of complicity”. It was initially set to expire later this month following the Paris attacks last November.
Police sources in Nice confirmed that the murderous two kilometre charge of the lorry might have been even longer if it had not been for the courage of a member of the public. “But I saw something else”. Suddenly I heard a huge, what I can only describe as maybe an explosion or a crash. A pink girl’s bicycle lay overturned by the side of the road.
France is conducting air strikes and special forces operations against Islamic State, as well as training Iraqi government and Kurdish forces. Marie, a 37-year-old security guard at the nearby beachfront Massena Museum which itself hosted Bastille Day festivities just hours before the attack-described the panic as people tried to flee.
Relative of the victims of the Bastille Day attack confort each other as they gather in front of Pasteur Hospital in Nice, southern France, Friday, July 15, 2016.
Advertisement
The identities of the victims testified to France’s diverse society and to the worldwide appeal of the tony French Riviera.
