Over 200 people have been injured and 84 (including 10 children) pronounced dead when a vehicle drove at high speed into a crowd who had congregated to watch the Bastille Day fireworks display in Nice, France on Thursday night.
Counter-terrorism police in France are investigating the incident after the driver thundered into the crowd. The truck continued to drive into the people for a distance of 2km.
Witnesses said that the driver was “zigzagging” in order to hit as many people as possible.
Parents were forced to throw their children over fences to save them as the truck zoomed down in their direction.
Ismali Khalidi, a US-Palestinian writer who was in the city at the time of the incident, told the Guardian
“People coming towards us said that the cops had told people to start running, without really telling people why. So people had started running for their lives without any other information.”
He said “We saw a guy basically throw his kids over a fence and then jump after them,”
Authorities confirmed that the driver had been shot dead by the police and they are still investigating whether he acted alone or had any accomplices. It is also believed that the man got out of the truck and began shooting people, before being shot dead by the police.
The attacker has been named as Tunis-born Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhel, a father of 3, a deliveryman and chauffer who has lived in France for many years. Police had found ammunition, 2 automatic weapons, a mobile phone and documents in the truck. They also found 2 fake weapons.
No group has however claimed responsibility for the attack and interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said:
“We are at war with terrorists who want to strike us at any cost and who are extremely violent.”