Please join us over on our day two live blog for continuing coverage of the Nice Bastille Day terror attack.
By Lynette Eyb
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This was published 9 years ago
Nice, France: Dozens killed, hundreds injured as truck drives into Bastille Day crowd
What we know so far
By Lynette Eyb
A truck has driven into a crowd of more than 30,000 people during a Bastille Day fireworks display on Nice's main promenade.
The incident – which is being treated as a terrorist attack – happened around 10.30pm local time on Thursday.
84 people were killed, including at least two children.
Hundreds more were injured, including more than 30 children who were taken to local hospitals. Witnesses reported the truck had driven into a children's carousel.
French media have named the driver as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old father of a young child. He reportedly had dual French-Tunisian nationality and lived in the suburbs of Nice.
'They just opened fire on him'
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Nader el-Shafei, who filmed police shooting truck driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel dead, said he thought at first the attack was "just an accident" until he saw the driver grab a gun.
"I saw him for like one minute, face to face, but he was not looking at me, he was not looking at the window," Mr el-Shafei said.
"He was just very nervous inside, looking for something around him, and I kept yelling at him waving with my hands to stop, trying to tell him that there is a lot of people under his truck dead already, but he didn't give any attention to anyone outside the truck.
"Suddenly I saw him picking up something like a cell phone. I thought he would call the ambulance for the accident, but it seems that I was wrong, because he just picked up his gun and he started to shoot the police."
Mr el-Shafei said that's when he realised something was wrong. A police officer pushed him away, and he took out his phone to film.
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Nice airport temporarily evacuated
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Nice airport was briefly locked down on Friday afternoon as authorities investigated a piece of luggage which had been abandoned in the terminal.
At around 2pm local time, passengers were ordered out and the building was sealed off as military personnel were visible inside, Associated Press reported.
Half an hour later, the terminal was re-opened and passengers were allowed back in.
One passenger described the scene as "complete confusion" and said nobody seemed to know what was going on.
French President Francois Hollande had arrived at the airport several hours before.
Driver 'aimed for children'
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At least 30 children were injured in the attack, with several killed and two dying in hospital.
One witness at the scene told the BBC the driver – reportedly a father himself – seemed to aim for children on the promenade.
"He particularly aimed for a children's carousel," the witness said.
"That's why there were a lot of children injured. Very small children."
A chilling photograph from the scene showed a metallic blanket over a tiny body, with a doll lying on the road next to it.
Tributes held across Australia for Nice victims
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Sydney and Melbourne have shown support for those killed in Nice, holding vigils and lighting up landmarks with the French flag.
In Melbourne, Parliament House and the Melbourne Wheel were lit up in blue, white and red.
The Melbourne Wheel on Friday night. Photo: Chris Hopkins
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'We just kept on running'
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Michael Lovell, his wife Claire and their three young children were in Nice on the last day of a 5-week holiday when they were caught up in the Bastille Day attack.
The family, from Burleigh Heads, were walking along the Promenade des Anglais after watching fireworks when the truck came within 10 metres of them as it hit and killed 84 people and injured dozens of others.
Mr Lovell took a photo of the happy crowds on the Promenade just one minute before the attack began and "extreme panic" set in.
"[It] was total carnage," he told Fairfax Media. "Bodies flying off the front of the truck, the sound was awful."
As the crowd started to run in the same direction as the truck, Mr Lovell and his family ran the opposite way and saw the bodies left in its wake.
Footage shows police shooting at truck driver
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Mobile phone footage taken by a bystander appears to show the moment police shot dead the driver of the truck which ploughed into hundreds of people on the Promenade des Anglais.
Officers surround the white truck and shoot for at least 10 seconds after the driver, named as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, reportedly produces a gun.
It appears the truck had stopped by the time the police started shooting at it.
Photographs showed the windscreen was left with more than 20 bullet holes.
Dozens of children injured in attack
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At least 30 children were injured in the attack in Nice, with two dying in hospital of critical injuries.
Stephanie Simpson, the communications director of the Foundation Lenval children's hospital, told Associated Press that the children were admitted with injuries including fractures and head injuries.
"Some are still life and death," she said.
Ms Simpson told the BBC that the hospital activated a crisis team at 11pm, with 60 staff rushing to the hospital.
Some surgeons and nurses arrived to treat their own children.
"Right now we can say that we had 30 kids that were brought to our emergency room, and unfortunately we have already 2 deaths out of those 30 kids that were brought to our emergency room," Ms Simpson said.
"We have a great array of injuries. I know some are still in life emergencies."
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Truck driver named
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The driver of the truck has been named by French media as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel.
Local newspaper Nice-Matin wrote the 31-year-old, who is the father of a young child, lived in northern Nice but was of Tunisian origin.
His apartment was searched by police on Friday morning local time as officers spoke to his relatives.
Bouhlel, believed to be a delivery driver, is thought to have hired the truck that was used in the attack in a nearby town one day earlier.
US officials have also reportedly confirmed the attacker's name.
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