WarSclerotic

Dozens killed as truck crashes into Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France, Washinton Times, Victor Morton, July 14, 2016

France’s national holiday turned bloody and violent Thursday night in the southern city of Nice, as a truck crashed into a crowd of Bastille Day revelers, killing dozens of people and prompting a gunfight with police.

“Dear people of Nice, the driver of a truck appears to have caused tens of deaths. Stay for the moment in your home. More info to come,” former Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said, according to a Washington Times translation of his tweet.

French TV stations had reported 30 days by early Friday local time.

A witness told Fox News that a gunman had fired into the crowd before police killed him.

Multiple videos posted on BreakingNews.com showed people fleeing in panic, though the crash itself wasn’t shown.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but according to the Twitter account of the terrorism-news portal TRACTerrorism.org, Islamic State affiliated Telegram accounts were posting images from Nice.

Islamist terror groups, sometimes using native-French Muslims, have targeted France repeatedly in recent years and the use of vehicles and car bombs are among their known tactics.

A terror attack in France on July 14 would be as symbolic as one in the U.S. on July 4. Bastille Day is France’s biggest public holiday, celebrating a Parisian mob’s storming of the eponymous royal prison on that date in 1789, kicking off the French Revolution — the founding event of modern France.

Jonathan Sisler, an Ohio University student attending the parade with three friends during a European vacation, tweeted from the scene “Vehicular attack on Bastille Day crowd in #Nice, France tonight. Mere feet away. Almost trampled by the fleeing crowd. Glad to be alive.”

This entry was posted on July 15, 2016 at 12:29 AM and is filed under Bastille Day attack, France, Islamic State. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Bastille Day attack, France, Islamic State