The driver used a white delivery truck to plow 2 kilometres through Nice’s crowded main promenade just as a fireworks show for France’s national day was ending, sparking panic as people tried to escape.
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Terror attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris killed 147 people and injured dozens of others in November.
Of the 202 injured, a Paris prosecutor confirmed that 52 remain in critical condition, including 25 on life support.
CNN reported the identity of the attacker as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, based on unnamed French officials.
Whether intelligence and security agencies in France had received any alerts.
Numerous eyewitnesses have shared cameraphone footage of the carnage along the Promenade des Anglais, as people ran in all directions, including into the sea, to try to escape. He announced an extension of a state of emergency for three months in the country.
“Korea stands with France and the worldwide community in exterminating terrorism throughout the world”, it said in its statement Friday. “There’s no denying the terrorist nature of this attack of yet again the most extreme form of violence”.
“I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route”. Franck Sidoli told Reuters.
“It’s just very surreal I think we’re all in shock there’s five of us right now just watching CNN and watching news as that number climbs we can’t believe it actually happened right in front of our hotel and just thanking God we’re okay”.
One of the Australian victims, a young woman who was on a Topdeck coach tour, was released from hospital on Friday evening (AEST) and has rejoined her group. Like Sidoli’s there are similar heartbreaking accounts from eyewitnesses who survived the horror.
President Barack Obama has been briefed on the attack, which a senior USA military source said is believed by French authorities to have been carried out “purposefully” and “maliciously”, NBC reports.
The low profile of the truck driver complicates the investigation into France’s third major terrorist attack in the last 18 months, giving authorities less grist to work with as they try to identify the driver’s motivation.
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Check out Reuters and USA Today’s coverage at the links below for more details about the Nice hits.
