At Least 80 People, Including Children, Reported Dead After Bastille Day Terrorist Attack
LatestAt least 80 people have been reported dead after a truck containing arms and grenades drove into a crowd of people out celebrating Bastille Day in the French City of Nice on Thursday night, in what has now been categorized as a terrorist attack.
The incident comes only eight months after a number of orchestrated attacks occurred in Paris last November, killing a total of 130 people, including roughly 89 attendees at the Bataclan theater music venue during an Eagles of Death metal concert.
The attack also took place merely days away from the July 26 deadline to lift a state emergency ban on the county set after the aforementioned attacks took place.
According to witnesses at the scene, a large white truck careened into a throng of people situated on a main street in the city, all of whom were enjoying the usual festivities for France’s national day of independence.
Bystanders also heard gunshots coming from the truck before it turned into the crowd.
“We were enjoying the celebrations when we suddenly saw people running everywhere and tables being pushed down by the movement of panic,” one onlooker, a teenager named Daphne Burandé, told The New York Times. “No one explained what was happening, and I heard some gunshots not very far away.”