In striking the jewel of the French Riviera on a national holiday the truck attack on Nice delivered a new blow to France’s tourism sector already reeling from repeated terror attacks.
On Friday, several cultural events across France were cancelled or postponed as a mark of respect for the 84 people killed when a gunman drove a 19-tonne truck into a crowd of revellers following Bastille Day fireworks the previous evening.
President Francois Hollande declared the incident a “terrorist” attack.
The place of the attack was a top tourist destination: the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais along the Mediterranean coast in the city which is the number two destination in France behind Paris.
The attack was the third major strike against France in less than 18 months. It comes eight months after Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers attacked bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the national stadium in Paris, killing 130 people. In January last year 17 were killed in another attack at various sites including the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris.