Huge crowds had gathered at Promenade des Anglais the southern city of Nice on Thursday evening to watch the Bastille Day fireworks, a traditional way to cap off France’s annual celebration of its revolution against absolute monarchy.
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Thursday night’s attack in the Riviera city of Nice plunged France into new grief and fear just eight months after gunmen killed 130 people in Paris. It’s panic. He rode up onto the Prom and piled into the crowd.
After driving 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) through the crowd, Bouhlel was killed after he began shooting and police and the officers returned fire. The attacker, a 31-year-old Tunisian who lived in Nice and drove for living, was killed by police gunfire. The truck’s front windshield was riddled with bullets, Bouhlel’s body slumped inside.
Bouhlel’s ex-wife was in police custody, Molins said.
He was convicted for the first time in March this year, French Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas said. The weapon used was a palette against another driver after a traffic accident.
A German journalist, Richard Gutjahr, said that he witnessed a motorcyclist chasing the truck and trying to overtake it.
The truck’s murderous journey lasted 15 city blocks.
“Police were everywhere in town for the day”.
“And they were struck, struck to death, to satisfy the cruelty of an individual and perhaps of a group”, he said after visiting a hospital that treated victims.
“A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a insane speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people”, he wrote. “But I saw something else”. “Heard noises, cries that I will never forget”.
Gingrich was said to be one of the leading candidates to become Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s running mate, but on Friday, Trump tweeted that he had chosen Indiana Governor Mike Pence for the position. A pink girl’s bicycle lay overturned by the side of the road. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “murder and attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise”.
“I speak for all of Arkansas when I say that we stand in solidarity with France against hatred, violence, and terrorism”.
Flags were lowered to half-staff in Nice, Paris, Brussels and many capitals across Europe.
France is observing three days of national mourning in homage to the victims. “Yes, it is a terrorist act and we shall see what links there are with terrorist organisations”. “And France is a great country, and a great democracy, that will not allow itself to be destabilized”.
“The horrific rampage in Nice is a direct attack on the universal values our two countries have long championed and upheld”.
He said he tried to help the wounded, including a woman with catastrophic injuries. The dead in Nice included at least 10 children and adolescents. Numerous cat-callers blamed government authorities for failing to enforce sufficient security measures following the November 13 attacks in Paris. Mr. Hollande from the left.
Major events in France have been guarded by troops and armed police since the Islamic State attacks a year ago, but it appeared to have taken many minutes to halt the progress of the truck as it tore along pavements and a pedestrian zone.
“Attacks aren’t prepared alone”.
“There was an altercation between him and another driver and he hurled a wooden pallet at the man”, Urvoas told reporters.
Stephane Erbs was heading back to his vehicle with his wife, Rachel, and their two children when he saw the white truck bearing down on their position. “Her son was on the ground, bleeding”, he told Reuters at the scene.
Cazeneuve said “we are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way”. “No one knew what to do”, he said.
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Davis issued a statement on the family’s behalf saying, “We are heartbroken and in shock over the loss of Brodie Copeland, an fantastic son and brother who lit up our lives, and Sean Copeland, a wonderful husband and father”. “They are so loved”.
