A Tunisian-born man zigzagged a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing at least 84 and injuring about 202 in what President Francois Hollande on Friday called a “terrorist” attack.
The truck driver who mowed down people has been identified as Mohamed lahouaiej Bouhlel. French news website Nice-Matin.com gave the name of the 31-year-old French-Tunisian national who was behind the wheel of the truck that ploughed through Bastille Day revellers.
Two children were confirmed among the dead and another 50 were being treated in hospital after the attack that left bodies strewn over the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais in the French Riviera resort.
Some of the dead, covered with sheets, remained on the promenade in the bright sun on Friday.
Two US citizens and a Ukrainian were among those killed, their countries said. Witnesses said the white truck drove at speed into a crowd over a distance of two kilometres (1.3 miles) after they had been watching a fireworks display on France’s National Day. City authorities said on Friday that some 30,000 people had watched the display.
Hollande has declared three days of mourning after the assault, as shell shocked. France found itself again mourning its dead after attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and the November 2015 massacre in Paris.
“France was struck on its National Day... The symbol of freedom,” said Hollande in a sombre televised address. The attack was of an “undeniable terrorist nature”, he said. Around 50 children were being treated at a paediatric hospital close to the scene of the attack.
Some were “hanging between life and death,” a hospital official said.
The State Department said two American citizens were among the dead. A Texas-based newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, named the victims as 51-year-old Sean Copeland and his 11-year-old son Brodie. A Ukrainian citizen was also killed, the country’s Foreign Minister said on Twitter, without giving more details.
A German freelance journalist who witnessed the attack said he saw a man on a motorbike chase the truck. “The motorcyclist attempted to overtake the truck and even tried to open the driver’s door, but he fell and ended up under the wheels of the truck,” Richard Gutjahr, 42, told AFP.
According to an eyewitness, he saw a truck driver slam a vehicle into a crowd of revelers in the French resort city of Nice and then emerge shooting, killing many. Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP near Nice’s Promenade du Paillon, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd and then witnessed the man emerge with a gun and start shooting. “There was carnage on the road,” Bouhlel said. “Bodies everywhere.”
Meanwhile, no Indian is reported to be affected in the terror “attack”. “Our Ambassador in Paris is in touch with the Indian community in Nice. So far no report of any Indians affected,” External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.
He also said the Indian embassy in Paris had opened the helpline number 33-1-40507070.
The attack comes eight months after Islamic State terrorists attacked Paris nightspots, killing 130 people and dealing a hard blow to tourism in one of the world’s top destinations.