“You go from having an absolutely marvelous time to sheer terror in a blink of an eye, literally”, he says. “But, then again, if there really was a state of emergency, we should not have had a gathering like the fireworks show….” “All of a sudden, just people, thousands of people, started running in one direction”.
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Some people jumped off the promenade seeking safety, he says.
He also said France would strengthen its role in Iraq and Syria, where it is part of the worldwide coalition fighting IS jihadists.
Molins said 52 of the 202 wounded in the attack remained in critical condition Friday night, 25 of them on life support. “Bodies everywhere”, he said.
“Tragic paradox that the subject of Nice attack was the people celebrating liberty, equality and fraternity”, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Twitter.
“France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy”, Hollande said, noting several children were among the dead in what he said he had no doubt was an act of terrorism.
And it was chillingly amplified in Nice, where a resident hopped into a truck and drove down from the hills onto the seaside promenade. There were unconfirmed reports the motorcyclist was crushed by the truck. He said Bouhlel had received a six-month prison sentence in March for a conviction for assault with a weapon, but other legal officials said his sentence was suspended because it was his first conviction. The blast came near the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan when streets were teaming with people – much like Thursday’s festivities that drew crowds across France. They may be able to kill the messengers, but they will never be able to kill the message.
She describes a jarring scene in Nice on Friday morning – a clear sunny day, with palm trees and the blue Mediterranean Sea visible behind investigators in hazmat suits picking through debris, including baby carriages.
PARIS French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday the man who killed at least 84 people by plowing his truck through a crowd in Nice in all likelihood had ties to radical Islamist circles.
Australian journalist David Coady, in Nice on vacation, witnessed the attack.
All that proved useless in protecting the crowd on the seafront Promenade des Anglais from a man with his foot on the gas.
“I remember thinking, ‘That’s really odd, ‘ because this is an area that’s been closed off to road traffic, just pedestrians were using it”, Coady tells NPR. “The crying, candles, hugs – how many times are we going to do that?”
The mayor for the city of Paris, which experienced a series of attacks in November that left 130 dead, added that the Eiffel Tower would be lit in the tricolors of the French flag this evening in solidarity with Nice. The French anti-terrorism prosecutor has opened a terrorism investigation. He was known to the police in connection with common crimes such as theft and violence but was not on the watch list of French intelligence services, the sources said. The government declared three days of national mourning to begin Saturday.
And in a situation where words aren’t enough, many have also been sharing powerful cartoons and images created by artists in response to the attack. Unlike attacks that have involved explosives-laden vehicles, the sheer weight and speed of the truck on the busy promenade appeared to have caused the high number of deaths.
Timothe Fournier, 27, from Paris died after pushing his seven-month-pregnant wife out of the truck’s deadly path, his cousin Anais told AFP.
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He added that what had happened was “exactly in line with the constant calls to kill” which jihadist terror groups make in videos and elsewhere. As often happens in situations like these, some information reported early may turn out to be inaccurate.
