Another neighbour said he was a “good-looking man” and she was suspicious of the way he eyed her daughters.
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“Not only Donald Trump would benefit from this attack, but also supporters of BREXIT ( Britain’s exit from the European Union)”, Allani said, “as one of the most prominent pro-BREXIT arguments was on the anti-migrant platform. People were literally diving for their lives”, Drattell says.
Eyewitnesses said there were “bodies everywhere” in the aftermath.
President Obama called the attack on Nice an “appalling attack on the freedom and peace that we cherish” and said the hearts of Americans are with the people of France, in remarks Friday.
Survivors of the attack say the man, who hasn’t yet been identified, jumped into the truck’s cab, wrestled with the driver and grabbed his gun, which significantly slowed the attacker.
“It could also lead to a radical review of the files of suspect terrorists, including the least and the most unsafe”.
The driver starts swerving to hit people on the roadway and on the wide pavements that overlook the strand and sea. The driver made it two kilometres along the promenade before being shot and killed by police in front of the Casino du Palais de la méditerranée.
Additionally, Hollande said the government had chose to draw upon operational reserves, including army veterans and former members of the gendarmerie “to come and help relieve the pressure on the police and gendarmes”. But Molins said Friday that the attacker was only armed with a single handgun, and that the other weapons found in the vehicle were “replicas”. “People saw [terror attacks] in Paris twice, but they never thought it would happen here”.
More than 10 children were among the dead, The Associated Press reports, citing the regional president in Nice. “It was hurtling towards us and we had just enough time to yell at each other ‘get out of the way!'”, he said.
Australian journalist David Coady, in Nice on vacation, witnessed the attack. Video footage showed the truck driving slowly down the southern French city’s famous, palm tree-lined Promenade des Anglais boulevard, which had been sealed off and turned into a pedestrian-only party zone.
“People were falling over”, he says. The attacker drove aheavy truck at high speed into dense crowds as a fireworks display to mark France’s Bastille Day national holiday came to an end on Thursday night.
With the news of the attack, French President Francois Hollande swiftly announced that his nation’s emergency law – which hands police wide-ranging powers and was first announced after attacks in Paris in November – would be extended by another three months. Investigators determined they were inspired but not directed by foreign terrorist groups. “There are French among the victims and also many foreigners from every continent and many children, young children”, Hollande said after visiting a hospital.
“He is a terrorist probably linked to radical Islam one way or another”, French Prime Minister Manue Valls told France 2 television’s evening news programme. Hollande said it was not clear whether the driver had accomplices.
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They reported that his identity papers were found in the truck. The aggressive use of the military in overseas combat operations by the French socialist regime in the name of rolling back jihadist threats in Mali, Central African Republic, Syria and Iraq sets this country apart as a bête noire for the Islamic State and its kindred.
