NICE: A terrorist gunman killed 84 people and injured 303, last week, as he drove a monster truck through a crowd gathered to watch the Bastille Day fireworks in the Nice. The killer described by ISIL as a "soldier of Islam" was identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian with a French passport. The attack is said to be the third worst attack following the Île-de-France attacks in January 2015 and the Paris attacks in November last year.
Driving a 19-tonne cargo truck at high speed right after the fireworks were over, Bouhlel swerved left and right to get pedestrians. "By the moment he was shot dead by the police, he had fired several times," said president of the region Christian Estrosi. The vehicle was pecked with bullet holes and lay damaged with burst tyres. President François Hollande called for military and police reservists to relieve forces worn out by an eight-month state of emergency that began after the Islamic State killed 130 people in Paris. The state of emergence has been extended by three months.
Following investigation after the attack, Bouhlel's mobile phone records showed he used dating websites and was quite addicted to drugs and alcohol. It also links him to seven suspects who lie currently in custody for alleged links to the terrorist. The phone also revealed a text message demanding weapons mere minutes before the seafront massacre ensued. The suspects include two Albanians alleged to have supplied a pistol to the killer, and others whose numbers appeared on the phone.
Officials said hundreds were hurt as the driver kept knocking them down "like skittles". Wrecking through hundreds of metres along the front facing the Baie des Anges, slamming into people listening to the orchestra, or just strolling above the beach, Bouhlel made sure to paint a bloodbath before he was taken down. Member of parliament Eric Ciotti called the place a "scene of horror" adding the truck "mowed down several hundred people". Hollande issued a statement saying "France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy." He noted the increased number of children among the dead and said France would continue its military operations in Syria and Iraq.
"Tragic paradox that the subject of Nice attack was the people celebrating liberty, equality and fraternity," European Council President Donald Tusk said on Twitter. Extending his support, Imam Qari Asim MBE, Senior Imam at Leeds Makkah Mosque, said, "We pray for the victims and their families following the attack in Nice, the same as we did for those in Orlando, Dallas, Medina, Baghdad, Istanbul, Dhaka and all the other places around the world terrorists have struck in recent weeks. Yet again we condemn the barbaric acts of an individual determined to spread hate and prejudice across the world. The senseless murder of innocence is always deplorable yet this attack is just another, in a long line of examples, that demonstrates the savagery and brutality of a twisted ideology. This a time when people of all faiths and none must come together, we must not let terrorists and extremists win in creating the divisions they viciously seek to sow."
