A Magen David Adom representative stationed in Nice, France said Friday afternoon that two elderly sisters belonging to the local Jewish community are missing following the Bastille Day terror attack that killed 84 people.
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The president of the Nice region, Christian Estrosi, said the truck was loaded with weapons and grenades and the driver was firing a pistol when he was shot by police.
“This photo was sent to me earlier today from the French Riviera…” It mowed through the crowd for nearly 2km before the driver was shot dead by police.
Nearly exactly eight months ago Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris.
Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP nearby, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd.
“There was carnage on the road”, Bouhlel said.
French President Francois Hollande said the killings were a terrorist attack.
However, a family spokesperson told CBS News that the two were Sean Copeland, 51, and his son, Brodie, 11.
Russia knows all too well the pain and grief caused by terrorism and feels for the loss of the French people from the Nice terrorist attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address.
The suspect, a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian descent, is suspected of driving the truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day along Nice’s beachfront.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it has launched a terror investigation.
“Nothing will make us yield in our will to fight terrorism”. The country has also declared three days of national mourning.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who joined French leaders yesterday at Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, said he would continue to stand “firmly” with the French people during this time. She added: “But our security services and our police are ever-vigilant and, as I say, the threat level here is already at a level which says that a terrorist attack is highly likely”.
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Hollande extended the country’s state of emergency for three months and were mobilizing reservists. The counterterrorism organization SITE Intelligence Group tweeted that channels supportive of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) on the encrypted messaging app Telegram were celebrating the assault.
