Nearly 50 still critical after Nice Attack, says French President Hollande

Mangalore Today News Network

France July 15, 2016 :  Nearly 50 people are still fighting for their lives after a large truck loaded drove into a crowd of spectators in southern France’s Nice earlier today, killing 84 and injuring many others. "About 50 people are in an absolute urgency between life and death," French President Francois Hollande said after visiting victims at a hospital in the French Riviera city.

 

The driver has been identified as a 31-year-old Franco-Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the truck. He fired pistol several times, news agency AFP quoted an investigative source as saying.


He was shot dead by the police after barrelling two kilometres through the crowd on the famous palm-lined Promenade des Anglais in the resort town. The man was not on the watch list of French intelligence services, but was known to the police in connection with common crimes such as theft and violence, a source said.


All of France was under an "Islamist terrorist threat," the President said after the third attack in 18 months. He added that several children are among the dead and that 20 of the injured are still in critical condition. France has declared three-day national mourning after the attack. The president has extended a state of emergency in France for three months.


"Our Ambassador in Paris is in touch with the Indian community in Nice. So far no report of any Indians affected," Vikas Swarup, ministry of external affairs spokesperson has tweeted. The Indian Embassy in Paris has opened a helpline at +33-1-40507070.


According to the government, Nice is home to nearly 1,500 Indian residents. An Indian couple vacationing there had just left the spot when the truck came smashing into the crowd.


The attack came after a day of military pomp and ceremony in Paris -- tanks and fighter jets swooped down the Champs Elysees avenue -- and spectacular firework displays in French cities. "France was struck on its national day ... the symbol of freedom," said President Hollande.


A photograph showed the front of the truck riddled with bullet holes and badly damaged, with burst tyres, while a lone doll lay abandoned on the promenade in Nice where families celebrated the holiday just hours earlier.


"Investigations are currently under way to establish if the individual acted alone or if he had accomplices who might have fled," France’s interior ministry spokesman said, but he denied reports that a hostage-taking incident had taken place.
US President Barack Obama said he condemned "what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack." No group has claimed responsibility, but supporters of Islamic State celebrated the attack on social media.


The Nice attack comes eight months after the ISIS attacked Paris nightspots killing 130 people. In January last year, 17 people were killed in an attack at various sites including the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket.