Bloodbath on Bastille Day
Truck driver mows down celebrating crowd in Nice, killing and injuring dozens
“An enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people. I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget.” DAMIEN ALLEMAND, JOURNALIST WHO WITNESSED THE ATTACK
A truck rammed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice on Thursday night, killing at least 77 people in an apparent terrorist attack as the driver also opened fire on revelers, French officials said.
The truck struck the crowd on the Promenade des Anglais, a seaside walk in the city in southern France, authorities said. More than 50 people were reported injured. The driver fired on the crowd before being shot to death by police, officials said.
Christian Estrosi, a former mayor of Nice and currently president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, said in one of a series of Twitter messages that the truck was carrying arms and explosives when it struck the crowd about 10:30 p.m. local time.
Estrosi told BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him.”
He added that the driver’s behavior appeared to be “completely premeditated.”
There was no immediate information on the identity of the driver or what motivated his action.
Local authorities were treating the incident as a terrorist attack and urging people to stay home, the French television channel BFM TV reported. It occurred as a large crowd was watching a fireworks display celebrating the French national holiday.
Witnesses said bodies of victims were strewn over the road for more than a mile. Graphic video and photographs flooded social media. In some, bodies could be seen lying on the boulevard where the truck plowed into the crowd. Revelers ran away from the scene while sirens blared.
In Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama released a statement Thursday night condemning “what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France.” He said he had directed his team to get in touch with French officials to assist with the investigation into the attack.
“We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack,” the statement said.
CNN quoted an American witness as saying he saw one person in the large white truck and heard gunfire, although it was not clear whether it came from the driver or was being fired at the vehicle.
The witness said the driver accelerated as he was mowing people down.
The Associated Press quoted Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native, as saying that after slamming into the crowd, the truck driver emerged with a gun and started shooting.
“There was carnage on the road,” Bouhlel said. “Bodies everywhere.”
There was no immediate assertion of responsibility for the bloodshed, although jihadist networks were celebrating it on social media.
The apparent attack was the latest in a string of horrific incidents that have unfolded across Europe in the past 18 months. In March, Islamic State attackers killed 32 people in suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and a metro station.
France was rocked by a devastating terrorist attack in November, when heavily armed suicide bombers killed 130 people in several places around Paris. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for that attack, the worst bloodshed on French soil since World War II.
News footage from the scene of the Nice incident showed the truck’s windshield riddled with bullet holes.
Analysts noted that the Islamic State has called on its followers to kill civilians in Western countries by any means possible.
The Islamic State has previously called for attacks using vehicles, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist statements. It said supporters of the radical Islamist organization, also known as ISIS or ISIL, were sharing the news of the Nice attack and “celebrating the massacre.”
Pro-Islamic State forums posted old messages in which the terrorist group urged followers to carry out lone-wolf attacks against France.
Police said people in the vicinity should stay home and follow instructions from authorities. Police urged people not to spread rumors or broadcast shocking videos of the scene.
A reporter for Agence France-Presse called it “absolute chaos.”
“We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around,” he said.
French President François Hollande returned to Paris to deal with the crisis after a private visit to Avignon, France. He said “the terrorist character” of the attack cannot be denied.
Just hours after announcing in the traditional Bastille Day interview that the state of emergency, in place since November attacks that killed 130 in Paris, was to be removed, Hollande said it must be extended for three months. That decision will need parliamentary approval.
He also said other measures will be put in place to counter the threat.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump quickly took to Twitter, writing: “Another horrific attack, this time in Nice, France. Many dead and injured. When will we learn? It is only getting worse.”
Within half an hour of initial reports of the incident, Facebook had activated its “safety check” feature for people in Nice. On Twitter, others used the hashtag #PortesOuvertesNice (“OpenDoorsNice”) to find and offer refuge to those who needed a place to stay.
In a tweet, the city of Nice urged people to seek shelter that way, and the hashtag was soon trending globally.
Meanwhile, taxis in the city were providing free rides to people seeking to leave the scene.
The attack came on one of France’s most treasured holidays, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. In Paris, the occasion is marked by a military parade down the Champs-Elysees, the oldest and largest regularly scheduled military parade in Europe.
On Nice’s Promenade des Anglais, which skirts the Mediterranean coast where thousands of revelers had gathered to watch a fireworks display, music mixed with the sounds of laughter and the crackle of fireworks for most of the night.
Then gunshots were fired into the crowd.
Maryam Violet, an Iranian journalist visiting Nice on vacation, told the Guardian that she saw the truck running into people as they left the fireworks show.
“I saw that suddenly people were fleeing and shouting,” she said, speaking by phone from Nice. “People were shouting, ‘It’s a terrorist attack! It’s a terrorist attack!’ It was clear that the driver was doing it deliberately.”
“I was walking for nearly a mile, and there were dead bodies all over the place,” she continued. “I think over 30 dead bodies are on the ground and lots of people are injured.”
Violet said she saw bodies covered in blue sheets and families mourning loved ones — two sisters and a brother from Poland who had lost two siblings; a family whose mother had died. She guessed that the family was Muslim, because some members were wearing headscarves.
“In Arabic, they were saying she’s a martyr,” Violet said.
“People were celebrating” before the incident, she said. “And it was so peaceful. It was a festivity vibe. It was right after the fireworks that the truck came and ran over people.”
Zeynep Akar told CNN that the truck drove into crowds right outside her home.
“I suddenly heard the crash and people shouting,” she said. “When I went to the balcony, there were so many people on the ground.”
When she heard the crack of gunfire, she hurried back inside her house and turned off the lights. “I didn’t know what was going on,” she said.
As everyone who could sought shelter, only emergency responders and relatives of those killed remained at the scene.