Floral tributes on the promenade in Nice.
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The truck sped straight for them, slowing at times, accelerating at others, leaving death, screams and horrific injuries in its wake.
A gunman smashed a truck into a crowd of revellers celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing at least 84 people in what President Francois Hollande on Friday called a “terrorist” attack.
Nearly instantly, those in its murderous path could tell that the speeding white truck was all wrong so late at night on Nice’s beachfront boulevard whose bright lights glittered along the bay like a string of stars.
Only one neighbour said she had any concerns about him, describing him as “a good-looking man who kept giving my two daughters the eye”.
A spokesperson said it has “particular concerns” for his welfare.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are deeply concerned about reports of an incident in Nice and are in touch with the local authorities to seek more information”.
French officials called it an undeniable act of terror, but no group claimed responsibility and it was unclear if the driver had any ties to extremists. We have particular concerns for the welfare of one Irish citizen, which we are following up urgently. “We will provide an update on the situation in due course”.
French police identified the attacker as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a French-Tunisian who lived in Nice.
Bouhlel’s attack was stopped thanks to a handful of police who pursued the truck on foot and, possibly, by motorcycle as he plowed through the first crowds outside the imposing Negrescol.
What in fact he was about to deliver was murder on a massive scale.
The truck zigzagged along the city’s seafront Promenade des Anglais as a fireworks display marking the French national day ended.
The truck tore into a pedestrian area as the crowd scattered, many leaping to the beach below.
“We are facing a long battle”, a haggard-looking Hollande said in a televised statement from the stricken city at mid-afternoon, in which he hailed security forces who, in a now-familiar pattern, rushed to respond to the attack. The truck’s front windscreen was riddled with bullets, with Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s body slumped inside. He added that 202 people were injured, among whom 52 were in critical condition and 25 were on life support.
The police said they arrested four more persons linked to Lahouaiej-Bouhlel and his estranged wife.
He had one criminal conviction, for road rage, and was sentenced to probation three months ago for throwing a wooden pallet at another driver.
The weapon used was a plank of wood against another driver after a traffic accident.
Witness Lucy Nesbitt-Comaskey told Sky News: “I said to my friend “This doesn’t sound like fireworks, it sounds like Beirut when it’s under fire”.
French president Francois Hollande said the country’s state of emergency would be extended for another three months.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said the “beast of terrorsim” had struck France on a “symbolic day for the sacrifices of the French people throughout its history to build the culture of freedom, equality and brotherhood”.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he was horrified by the attacks and expressed sympathies on the behalf of the Government. “Once again, innocent people have been targeted at an occasion of joy and celebration”, he said.
“This is yet another time of great anguish for the people of France”.
Thursday’s slaughter was the third major terrorist attack in France since past year.
Egyptian tourist Nader El Shafei said he tried imploring Bouhlel in Arabic through the attacker’s open window to stop what he was doing. The Parisian had seen the truck’s trajectory and knew immediately that this was an attack because it careened straight at a stand selling candy to children.
“Where the quality of democracy is weakened, the door is opened to those who use their own ideology or power to render us all weaker and less protected”.
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The rented 19-ton (21 US -ton) truck zigzagged for 2 kilometers (1¼ miles) through holiday crowds like a snow plow, leaving a gruesome trail of crushed and mangled bodies.
