Bastille Day Terror in France
July 15, 2016
Yesterday, July 14, a terrorist drove a truck into a large crowd in Nice, France, killing 84 people and injuring dozens of others. The brutal attack took place on the resort city’s famed Promenade des Anglais seafront as it was packed with people celebrating Bastille Day, France’s great national holiday. A fireworks show was just finishing, around 11 p.m. local time, when the large commercial truck began ramming pedestrians at high speed along the promenade. Terrified people scrambled to get out of the way, but there was little time and little room for escape. The driver continued his rampage—some witnesses claimed he shot a handgun from the cab as he drove—for some 1¼ miles (2 kilometers). The battered truck finally came to a halt, and the terrorist fired his weapon from behind the wheel. Police killed him in a quick shootout. The driver was then identified as a Tunisian-French Nice resident known only for petty crimes.
Nice is located on the southeast coast of France.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map
French President François Hollande, who was elsewhere in the south of France for Bastille Day, rushed back to a national crisis center in Paris. “France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy,” Hollande said. “There’s no denying the terrorist nature of this attack.” There has yet to be any claim of responsibility for the attack, but it bears the markings of the Islamic State terrorist group (also known as ISIS, ISIL, or DAESH). Even if the group takes credit for the heinous act, the killer could very well have been acting on his own.
Nice is a popular resort city on the French Riviera and a Mediterranean port. It lies at the foot of the Alps near Italy. The Promenade des Anglais (English Walkway)—often called La Prom by locals—stretches along the sea with luxury hotels, shops, and villas on one side and lovely beaches on the other. It is the city’s most famous landmark. An estimated 30,000 people were along the walkway at the time of the attack.
