According to The Independent, police sources in Nice said the attacker could’ve gotten further than two kilometers (killing more people in the process) had the courageous man not taken action.
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Officials said 202 people had been wounded in the attack, with 25 of them on life support as of late Friday.
The attacker, a 31-year-old Tunisian who lived in Nice and drove for living, was killed by police gunfire.
“I went near the Promenade des Anglais this morning”, he told AFP.
Amongst the dead were 10 children and teenagers, the French government later confirmed.
“The motorcyclist attempted to overtake the truck and even tried to open the driver’s door, but he fell and ended up under the wheels of the truck”. “It was hurtling towards us and we had just enough time to yell at each other ‘get out of the way!'”, he said.
Bouhlel was finally stopped when a police officer managed to jump onto the front of the truck, allowing authorities to train their guns on the driver, French lawmaker Eric Ciotti told local radio.
The massacre, which comes after two major terror attacks in France in 2015, has once again shaken the country to its core, raising questions over intelligence and security failings and how to stop such unsophisticated, yet deadly, assaults.
What is known publicly about Bouhlel so far suggests a troubled, angry man with little interest in the group’s ultra-puritanical brand of Islam.
“The divide that exists is not between religion or race, he said”. He said he had requested that the police presence be reinforced in Nice ahead of the fireworks display but was told there was no need.
– ARMENIA: An Armenian citizen was also among the dead, the foreign ministry said.
Tributes are seen at a makeshift memorial to pay tribute to the victims of an attack in the French Riviera city of Nice.
He and his wife had three children but she had demanded a divorce after a “violent argument”, one neighbour said.
Bouhlel, the man accused of seriously injuring an additional 52 people by driving the lorry, was shot dead by armed officers after trading gunfire with police using a 7.65 calibre pistol as he drove.
Although France marked its Fête de la Fédération on July 14 the next year, it wasn’t until about 100 years later that the day became a national holiday and it became known worldwide as Bastille Day.
But political opponents were already pointing the finger, with presidential contender Alain Juppe saying the carnage could have been avoided if “all measures” had been taken.
Ringe said people in Nice were trying to resume their normal lives Friday, “but it’s going to be hard”. They had come to marvel at the fireworks, “to feel joy, to share in happiness and be dazzled”, said President Francois Hollande. 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. “Today I’m nearly ashamed and afraid. It looked like a battlefield”, he said.
People pray at Sainte-Reparate Cathedral in Nice, France, during a mass in memory of the terrorist attack victims, July 15, 2016. French President Francois Hollande called it a terrorist act by an enemy determined to strike all nations that share France’s values.
No terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for the attack.
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“I know I speak for all of us when I say that these individuals and these networks are an affront to all of our humanity”, Obama said in remarks from the White House.
