NICE, France An attacker killed up to 80 people and injured scores when he drove a heavy truck at high speed into a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice late on Thursday, officials said.
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Identity papers belonging to a 31-year-old French-Tunisian were found inside the truck which barrelled through a crowd of Bastille Day revellers in Nice, killing 77, a police source said today.
The president of the region that includes Nice says a truck that slammed into revelers celebrating Bastille Day on the city’s waterfront was loaded with arms and grenades, and that the driver of the truck has now been killed by police. He later said there were 70 “victims”.
Police officers, firefighters and rescue workers are seen at the site of an attack on July 15. Christian Estrosi, president of the regional government, told French television that the driver fired at the crowd, according to the police who killed him, and that the attack appeared to be “completely premeditated behavior”.
Nance stressed that the use of methods associated with al Qaeda didn’t necessarily mean the driver was affiliated with the terrorist group. “They wanted it done in a spectacular fashion”.
Numerous others have been wounded, he said after traveling to the scene. He said he was speaking from the scene.
“As we wait for more information on this horrific attack, we stand with our close ally in their time of need after this apparent attack against the French people on their national day of unity”, he said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved ones of those killed”, Obama said in a statement shared by the White House. “People were flooding the streets, just walking away from the show, and I heard a lot of loud noises and people were screaming and so to the west, a big moving truck was driving on the promenade, just barreling over people and hitting – running people over”.
“For something like this to have happened, especially right after the fireworks, clearly it was a very well-coordinated, well-timed event, because it certainly was no accident”, Motamedi said, adding: “It was the scariest moment of my life, easily”.
“I pushed my mother into a building along with about 50 other people”. “The terrorist nature of this attack can not be denied”, he said.
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“Nothing will make us yield in our will to fight terrorism”.
