begin quote from:
NICE,
France — A red ambulance, its lights flashing, sped down the road and
jerked to a stop. The driver jumped out, asking, “Where are the
wounded?” “We only have dead here,” replied two …
In Nice, a Vibrant Celebration Gives Way to a Trail of Death
NICE,
France — A red ambulance, its lights flashing, sped down the road and
jerked to a stop. The driver jumped out, asking, “Where are the
wounded?”
“We
only have dead here,” replied two men, trying to comfort a young man
who was weeping over the body of his mother and imploring Allah to
accept her into heaven.
An eerie tableau of death and dying
extended along a mile-long stretch of the graceful, crescent-shaped
Promenade des Anglais on Thursday night, running from Nice’s airport to
the oldest part of the coastal city.
One
moment, there was a great street celebration for France’s Bastille Day
holiday — and the next, a truck came barreling through at high speed, leaving a trail of bodies, shock and despair through a French Riviera fiesta.
Among
the first people killed by the speeding truck on the sidewalk next to
Lenval Beach was the middle-aged Muslim woman. Two of her sons and other
family members stood, weeping or frozen in stunned silence, around her
body, which was covered in a pale blue tartan blanket.
Heavy Toll Feared in Nice
CreditAntoine Chauvel
Nearby there was another victim, an unidentified man sprawled on the sidewalk next to the beach beneath a bloodied sheet.
So
numerous were the bodies that to protect their dignity, people had
covered some of them with tablecloths snatched from the restaurants
lining the Promenade des Anglais.
It
was windy, with a slight, sporadic drizzle, and the celebration of just
a few moments earlier was already a distant memory. Crowds had gathered
to celebrate Bastille Day, France’s most popular holiday. The woman and
the man had been there, with so many others, along the broad seafront
promenade, as Nice’s annual fireworks display lit up the night sky.
Truck Plows into Crowd in Nice, Killing Dozens
A truck drove into a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, France, sending hundreds running for safety.
By NATALIA V. OSIPOVA and A.J. CHAVAR on Publish Date July 14, 2016.
Photo by Eric Gaillard/Reuters.
Watch in Times Video »
They
were all easy prey — or, in the parlance of an era when this kind of
killing has become all too common, they were soft targets.
The
evening had been filled with bangs and flashes of light as fireworks
displays rolled along France’s southern coast, drawing cheers from
delighted families whose main worry for much of the day had been whether
rain might force the cancellation of the celebration.
This
was not a military base, or a guarded government building. It was
simply a crowd celebrating in the street. Like the fans at the Bataclan,
gunned down in Paris during a concert; or the newspaper staff of
Charlie Hebdo; or the people blown up outside the airport in Turkey.
Graphic: A Truck’s Path of Destruction in Nice, France
This
time, all it took was a murderous driver and a massive truck. Witnesses
said the truck had entered the Promenade des Anglais from a side street
near the Foundation Lenval children’s hospital, turned left and mounted
the sidewalk opposite a row of balconied seaside villas and apartment
buildings.
The
driver then drove deeper into the city, mowing down victim after victim
as the truck plowed through increasingly dense crowds of revelers.
Pierre
Roux, whose apartment faces the sea, said he had first thought that the
truck was simply out of control. But then he noticed that the lights
were off and there was no honking.
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“Nobody in the way stood a chance,” he said.
He had come out of his apartment early Friday to place a burning candle on a white sheet covering a body that was unattended.
As he spoke, heavily armed police officers sealed off a widening perimeter of the city.
Simon
Cotteridge, who also lives along the promenade, said he had been
watching the fireworks. Just after the display ended, he said, there was
“a tremendous thud.”
He
wondered if it had been some sort of coda to the fireworks show, or
perhaps an accident. But then, he said, he saw a dozen bodies on the
pavement — and a big crowd of people “running and screaming.”
“It was horrific,” Mr. Cotteridge said.
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