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A terrorist gunman killed 84 people, including 10 children, and left over 150 injured, 18 in serious condition, when he drove a heavy truck at high speed into a crowd watching National Day (Bastille Day) fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice late on Thursday. There are also two Romanians among the injured, as the Romanian FM told Digi 24. Lazar Comanescu said it’s about two Romanians who live in France and that they are admitted in the hospitals in Nice. The Foreign Affairs minister could not say mucg about the victims.
Three days of national mourning have been declared in France.
“Flags will be half mast on July 16,17.18,” French PM Manuel Valles announced, as quoted by Le Figaro online. “We are facing a war,” the French PM added.
The driver was shot dead after barrelling the truck two kilometres (1.3 miles) through the festive crowd on the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais, sending hundreds fleeing in terror and leaving the area strewn with bodies. Eyewitnessess say the attacker was driving in a zigzag so that he could hit as many people as possible.
Authorities said they found identity papers belonging to a 31-year-old French-Tunisian citizen in the truck, as well as “guns” and “larger weapons”. The terrorist was based in Nice, according to the authorities, while local paper Nice Matin names suspect as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel.
According to ‘Express’ British daily, the author of the attack had managed to get in that area, which was as a matter of fact closed down due to the national day celebrations, by lying that he was transporting icecream. He has reportedly been waiting in the car for hours before he started the attack.
“France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy,” Hollande said, noting several children were among the dead in what he said he had no doubt was an act of terrorism.
The truck driver who rammed his vehicle into a massive crowd in Nice fired a pistol several times before being shot dead by police, a local official said Friday.
“At the moment that he was shot dead by police, he had fired several times,” said president of the region Christian Estrosi.
A source close to the investigation said an “inactive” grenade was found inside the 19-tonne truck, as well as “several fake rifles”.
Regional lawmaker Eric Ciotti described “terrifying images, a scene of absolute horror, with many children among the dead”.
The children had come with thei parents to attend the National Day celebrations. Many of them were also injured, undergoing surgeries in hospital. A family lost their 8-month-baby in the stampede, but fortunately they found him one hour later.
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