Police officers stand near a van, with its windscreen riddled with bullets, that tore into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice on July 14, 2016
A large truck plowed into a crowd of people in the southern French of city of Nice on Thursday night, killing at more 70 people and injuring at least another 100 as the heavy vehicle mowed over its victims along hundreds of feet, according to police and government officials. The grim death toll jolted the entire country, which has been tenterhooks for months, wondering if and when another deadly assault might occur.
The incident occurred just as thousands of people poured on to the streets on a warm midsummer’s night to celebrate the country’s biggest public holiday of the year, Bastille Day, and to watch the fireworks display — a traditional feature in every city and village across France in the annual celebrations. The truck slammed into the crowds gathered on the city’s Promenade des Anglais, which runs along the Mediterranean seafront, and sent those who could escape screaming in panic as they fled the scene. The driver fired on the crowd before being fatally shot by police, officials said.
The city’s deputy mayor , Christian Estrosi, said more than 70 were killed in the attack.
“There was carnage on the road,” eyewitness Wassim Bouhlel told the AP. “Bodies everywhere.”
The Nice region’s president said that the truck was loaded with arms and grenades, according to the Associated Press.
For France, the attack on Thursday night is likely to be deeply distressing — and to raise the question about how the country can possible avoid further attacks, given the extraordinary security measures already in place. What is more, Thursday’s mass deaths, if terrorism, will be the third terror attack in France in just 18 …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
