202 people wounded in Nice truck attack: 25 on life support, 52 in critical condition

Top Stories

202 people wounded in Nice truck attack: 25 on life support, 52 in critical condition

Nice - A large truck plowed through revelers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, killing at least 84 people and sending others fleeing into the sea as it bore down for more than a mile along the Riviera city's famed waterfront promenade.

By Agencies

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Sat 16 Jul 2016, 6:33 AM

Last updated: Sat 16 Jul 2016, 3:26 PM

An Egyptian tourist who filmed police shooting the truck driver who mowed people down in Nice says he saw the attacker firing back through a window.
Nader El Shafei says the truck ground to halt right in front of him after "smashing a girl" and leaving a trail of bodies on the Promenade des Anglais.
He told The Associated Press in an interview: "I kept waving to him, 'Stop, stop! There are people under your truck.'"

He said the driver pulled out a gun when police closed in on the halted truck.
El Shafei said "the police started shooting. I saw the gun in his hand and I saw him shooting through the window."
--
The French police have released a picture of the visa of the Nice truck attacker. The suspect is 31-year-old Franco-Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, whose identity papers were found in the truck.
--
French President Francois Hollande said Friday that "many foreigners and young children" were among those killed or injured after the truck attack on a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, with around 50 fighting for their lives.
"There are French among the victims and also many foreigners from every continent and many children, young children," said a clearly moved Hollande in a speech from a hospital in the French Riviera city.
"As I speak 84 people are dead, and around 50 are in a critical condition between life and death," he added.
Earlier, the Nice airport had been evacuated after an unattended bag was discovered at Terminal 1, an airport official said.
The official said it was a precautionary measure following the attack on the beach front. 
A large truck plowed through revelers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, killing at least 84 people and sending others fleeing into the sea as it bore down for more than a mile along the Riviera city's famed waterfront promenade.
The driver was killed by police and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the Thursday night attack on France's national holiday, which rocked a nation still dealing with the aftermath of two attacks in Paris last year that killed a total of 147 people.
The driver of the truck has been formally identified, police sources said on Friday.
He is a 31-year-old Franco-Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the vehicle after the attack on France's July 14 national holiday.
Nice attacker exposed: A loner who barely spoke
Police have not yet released the attacker's name, but they said he lived in Nice. Other sources said previously he was already known to police for minor criminal offences.
Police shot the driver dead after he drove the truck two kilometres (1.3 miles) through a crowd along the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais.
"All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorists," a somber President Francois Hollande said on national television early Friday.
Also read: What we know so far about the Nice attack

The truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of two kilometers (about 1.2 miles), a lawmaker said, and broadcast footage showed a scene of horror up and down the promenade, with broken bodies splayed on the asphalt, some piled near one another, others bleeding onto the roadway or twisted into unnatural shapes.
Some tried to escape into the water, Eric Ciotti, a lawmaker for the region that includes Nice said Friday, giving new details of the horrifying last minutes of the attack.
"A person jumped onto the truck to try to stop it," Ciotti told Europe 1 radio. "It's at that moment that the police were able to neutralize this terrorist. I won't forget the look of this policewoman who intercepted the killer."
Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native, told The Associated Press that he saw a truck drive into the crowd. "There was carnage on the road," he said. "Bodies everywhere." He said the driver emerged with a gun and started shooting.

 
The regional president, Christian Estrosi, told BFM TV that "the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him." He said more than 10 children were among the dead.
Flags were lowered to half-staff in Nice and in Paris, and Hollande extended the state of emergency imposed after the November bloodshed another three months.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who traveled to the scene, said police were trying to identify the driver. Ciotti said identification papers were found in the truck and that investigators were trying to determine whether they were legitimate.
Partiers in summer apparel ran for their lives down Nice's palm-tree-lined Promenade des Anglais, the famous seaside boulevard named for the English aristocrats who proposed its construction in the 19th century.
 
"France was struck on the day of its national holiday, July 14, the symbol of liberty," Hollande said early Friday, denouncing "this monstrosity" - a truck bearing down on citizens "with the intention of killing, smashing and massacring ... an absolute violence."
Hollande said it was not immediately clear whether the driver had accomplices. The Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation for "murder and attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise."
Estrosi said some of the city's 1,200 security cameras had pinpointed the moment the attacker boarded the truck, far from the seaside "in the hills of Nice" and could follow his path to the promenade. Estrosi called for the investigation to focus on any accomplices.
"Attacks aren't prepared alone. Attacks are prepared with accomplices," Estrosi said. "There is a chain of complicity. I expect it to be unveiled, discovered and kept up to date."
Hollande called a defense council meeting Friday with key ministers, and will head to Nice after that.
Cazeneuve said "we are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way."
France has lived with soldiers in the streets since the November attacks, and much of the country was under intense security during the month-long European football championships, which ended July 10 without incident.
Video footage showed men and women - one or two pushing strollers - racing to get away from the scene. Photos showed a truck with around 20 bullet holes.
Also read: When vehicles become weapons in terror attacks
Writing online, Nice Matin journalist Damien Allemand, who was at the waterside, said the fireworks display had finished and the crowd had got up to leave when they heard a noise and cries.
"A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people," he said. "I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget."
On video footage, one person could be heard yelling, "Help my mother, please!" A pink girl's bicycle was overturned by the side of the road.
Hollande announced a series of measures to bolster security. Besides continuing the state of emergency and the Sentinel operation with 10,000 soldiers on patrol, he said he was calling up "operational reserves," those who have served in the past and will be brought in to help police, particularly at French borders.
He reiterated that France is also bolstering its presence in Iraq and Syria, where he said earlier that military advisers would be on the ground to help Iraqis take back the Daesh stronghold of Mosul.
President Barack Obama condemned what he said "appears to be a horrific terrorist attack."
European Council president Donald Tusk said it was a "tragic paradox" that the victims of the attack in Nice were celebrating "liberty, equality and fraternity" - France's motto - on the country's national day.

France has long known it is a top target for the Daesh. In September 2014, then-spokesman Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani made a statement telling Muslims within the country to attack them.
France has been not only a prime target for Daesh, but has seen more young Muslims head to join extremists than any other European nation. And Nice has been at the center of the movement, home to one of the most prolific creators of militant recruiting videos for the French-speaking world, a former petty drug dealer named Omar Omsen who is now fighting in Syria.

Daesh carried out the November 2015 attacks, sending a group of largely French-speaking men to strike at France's national stadium, bars and cafes and the Bataclan concert venue. In March, the same Daesh cell struck in Belgium.
Top Islamic body condemns attack
Islam's leading seat of learning Al-Azhar on Friday condemned the deadly truck attack on France's national holiday, urging unity to "rid the world" of "terrorism."
"These vile terrorist attacks contradict Islamic teachings," the Cairo-based institution said in a statement.
"Al-Azhar... affirms the necessity of uniting efforts to defeat terrorism and rid the world of its evil."
World leaders' horror at attack
Politicians and public figures from around the world have reacted with horror:
- US President Barack Obama condemned what he said appeared to be a "horrific terrorist attack".
"We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack," he said in a statement.
"On this Bastille Day, we are reminded of the extraordinary resilience and democratic values that have made France an inspiration to the entire world."
- US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had himself been in Paris earlier in the day for a Bastille Day parade, said: "The United States will continue to stand firmly with the French people during this time of tragedy. We will provide whatever support is needed."
- Germany "stands alongside France in the fight against terrorism," Chancellor Angela Merkel said, adding that "words can barely express" what France's allies felt.
- A spokesman for new British Prime Minister Theresa May called the attack "a terrible incident", adding "we are shocked and concerned".
- Boris Johnson, whose first engagement as Britain's new foreign secretary was at the French ambassador's Bastille Day party in London, said on Twitter:
 
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter:
- European Council President Donald Tusk called it "a sad day for France, for Europe". He said it was "tragic" that "the subjects of the attack were people celebrating liberty, equality and fraternity."
- Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim - whose own country suffered deadly suicide bombings at Istanbul's airport two weeks ago - condemned the "cowardly terrorist attack that has bloodied Nice on this national celebration day".
- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang offered his "condolences" to the victims and said China opposed all forms of terrorism.
- The United Nations Security Council called the attack "barbaric and cowardly".
- Latin American leaders also condemned the carnage, with Brazilian interim president Michel Temer declaring: "Today, more than ever, we are all French." Ecuador's President Rafael Correa added that he was sending France "a hug" after "a tragedy caused by insanity".
- The Vatican said in a statement that it "condemned in the strongest possible terms" the bloodshed in Nice.
- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy evoked "the pain of all good people, who are potential victims of barbarism, folly and the greatest contempt for human life".
- The Kremlin said Russia was "in solidarity with the people of France during these difficult days."
- President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "France can count on the European Commission to continue to support the fight against terrorism both inside and outside the EU. Our resolve will remain as firm as our unity."
- US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said: "Every American stands in strong solidarity with the people of France, and we say with one voice: we will not be intimidated. We will never allow terrorists to undermine the egalitarian and democratic values that underpin our very way of life."

Parents of victims embrace each other near the scene of a truck attack  in Nice, southern France
Parents of victims embrace each other near the scene of a truck attack in Nice, southern France

More news from