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Bastille Day truck driver was known to police, reports say Bastille Day truck driver was known to police, reports say
(about 1 hour later)
The man who drove a truck through crowds of Bastille Day revellers in an attack that killed 84 people in Nice was known to authorities but not on the terrorism watchlist, Reuters has reported. A massive police operation is under way in France to establish whether a 31-year-old French citizen of Tunisian origin acted alone or with accomplices in his attack on Bastille Day celebrations in Nice.
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Authorities have yet to formally identify the man, but told the local news agency BFM TV that an identity card found in the truck for a 31-year-old French-Tunisian citizen did belong to him. According to police sources and French media reports, the refrigerated truck used in the attack, which killed at least 84 people and injured hundreds more when it drove into crowds on the city’s Promenade des Anglais, was rented two days ago in nearby Saint-Laurent-du-Var.
The man was known to police for lower-level crimes, such as theft and violence, but had not been put on a watchlist by French intelligence services, Reuters said. The driver was shot dead in the truck after reportedly opening fire with a pistol on police who had surrounded the vehicle. Among items recovered from inside were an identity card, mobile phone and bank card, all linked to the driver.
No groups have claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday, but the French president, François Hollande, said it was “terrorist in nature” and would be met by a show of “real force and military action in Syria and Iraq”. He was formally identified by police on Friday morning as they launched a series of coordinated operations across the city.
Anti-terrorism police took over the investigation early on Friday morning. The attacker, a 31-year-old Tunisian-born Frenchman who lived in Nice, was known to the police for common crimes – including violence – but not to the intelligence services, a police source said.
On Friday morning, police forensics officers were combing through the truck, which remained where it stopped, its front badly damaged and riddled with bullet holes, and its tyres burst.
Video footage showed the 19-tonne white truck speeding up as it drove into screaming crowds along the Promenade des Anglais while several people tried to chase it on foot. It mowed through the crowd for almost 2km before the driver was shot dead by police.Video footage showed the 19-tonne white truck speeding up as it drove into screaming crowds along the Promenade des Anglais while several people tried to chase it on foot. It mowed through the crowd for almost 2km before the driver was shot dead by police.
“At the moment that he was shot dead by police, he had fired several times,” the president of the region, Christian Estrosi, said. No groups have claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday, but the French president, François Hollande, said it was “terrorist in nature” and would be met by a show of “real force and military action in Syria and Iraq”.
Dramatic details emerged on Friday over how a member of the crowd celebrating Bastille Day on the seaside promenade had tried to stop the lorry just before the driver was shot dead.
Related: Have you been affected by the attack in Nice?Related: Have you been affected by the attack in Nice?
A pistol, a gun, “several fake rifles”, and an inactive grenade were found in the truck along with the identity card, Agence France-Presse reported. “Someone in the crowd jumped on the lorry to try and stop it,” said Eroic Ciotti on Europe 1. “It was at that moment that the police were able to stop the terrorist. He had fired on the police without hitting them and on the person who tried to stop him.”
Tori Anderson, an Australian tourist in Nice for the celebrations, said the driver was “swerving all across the road, with a gun out the window just shooting anything and running anything down on the road that he could”. A witness called Nader told BFM television he had seen the whole attack from start to finish, and had initially thought the driver had lost control.
Anderson told Nine News in Australia that the truck had come from behind. “He stopped just in front of me after he [crushed] a lot of people. I saw a guy in the street, we were trying to speak to the driver to get him to stop. He looked nervous. There was a girl under the car, he smashed her. The guy next to me pulled her out.”
“My friend and I just looked to the side and the bodies directly beside us got pulled under the truck,” she said. “Bodies were flying left, right and centre.” Nader said he saw the driver pull out a gun and start shooting at police. “They killed him and his head was out the window.”