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Truck Attack in Nice, France: What We Know, and What We Don’t Truck Attack in Nice, France: What We Know, and What We Don’t
(4 days later)
The driver of a large white truck mowed down a crowd gathered to watch Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, France, on Thursday night. Scores of people were killed and injured in what the French government has called a terrorist assault, the third major attack on the country in 19 months. A large truck plowed into a crowd gathered to watch Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, France, on Thursday, killing scores of people in what the French president called a terrorist attack.
• The truck, a 19-ton refrigeration vehicle rented by the assailant on Monday, sped down the crowded seaside promenade in Nice around 10:45, going about 1.1 miles eastward. The assailant exchanged gunfire with three police officers before he was shot to death. • Around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, the truck sped down the promenade in the seaside city of Nice. French officials said that one man was identified as driving the truck, and he was shot dead by the police.
• At least 84 people were killed — including 10 children and teenagers — and 303 were wounded. Of those wounded, 121 remain in hospitals, 26 of them in intensive care. Foreigners among the dead included three Germans, two Americans, two Tunisians and a Russian. At least three other Americans were injured. • At least 84 people were killed, an Interior Ministry official said Friday morning. Dozens of others were injured, some severely.
• Government officials identified the assailant as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a delivery-truck driver who was raised in northeast Tunisia and who moved to France around 2005. He had a minor criminal record, but he was not in a government database of radicalized militants. Neighbors in his former apartment building described him as a moody and aggressive oddball who never went to the local mosque. • President François Hollande called it a terrorist attack, and he convened an emergency meeting at the Interior Ministry in Paris to discuss the situation. He said he would travel to Nice on Friday.
• The Islamic State claimed responsibility Saturday morning for the attack, calling Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel a “soldier” in its fight against “crusader states.” But there are no signs that he had direct ties to any terrorist group. • The president said he would request a three-month extension of the state of emergency declared after terrorist attacks in and around Paris in November. It had been scheduled to expire on July 26.
• Contrary to initial reports from Nice municipal officials that the truck was full of weapons and explosives, its cargo hold contained a bicycle and eight empty pallets, or stacking platforms. In the cab, police found an automatic 7.65-millimeter pistol, two fake assault rifles, a nonfunctioning grenade, and a cellphone and unspecified documents. • Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Friday morning that France would observe three days of national mourning, starting on Saturday, and that the country would not give in to terrorism. But he warned that France had entered an era in which it would have to live with terrorism.
• The French president, François Hollande has extended by three months a state of emergency established after the attacks in and around Paris on Nov. 13. It had been scheduled to expire on July 26. • The Paris prosecutor’s office, which oversees counterterrorism investigations in France, has taken charge of the inquiry.
• France began three days of national mourning, starting on Saturday. • France was already reeling from a string of terrorist attacks since the start of last year, including attacks in and around Paris in January and November 2015 that killed 147 people. Islamist extremists claimed responsibility for those attacks.
• Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s motives for the attack, whether he had accomplices, or whether the Islamic State played any direct role. (Its claim of responsibility must be greeted with caution.) • The attack in Nice occurred on France’s national holiday — 227 years since the storming of the Bastille prison, a pivotal moment in the French Revolution — and in one of France’s most populous cities, during peak vacation season.
• The extent and adequacy of security preparations for the large crowds attending Bastille Day celebrations on Thursday, especially in cities outside Paris, like Nice. There was extensive security in place for the recent Euro 2016 soccer tournament. • Who committed the attacks, and why. The newspaper Nice Matin reported early Friday that he was a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin, but officials have not confirmed that.
• Whether France’s intelligence and security agencies are up to the task. On July 5, a parliamentary inquiry examining last year’s attacks found widespread failures in the collection and analysis of information that could have helped prevent those assaults. • The extent and adequacy of the preparations that French officials had put in place to handle large crowds during the Bastille Day celebrations, especially in cities outside Paris, the capital. Extensive security, including the hiring of private security agents, had been put in place for the recent European Championship soccer tournament.
• Whether France’s intelligence and security agencies had received any hints of the danger. On July 5, a parliamentary inquiry examining last year’s attacks found widespread failures in the collection and analysis of information that could have helped prevent those assaults.