‘Bodies flew like bowling pins on road’

Nice, July 15

Bodies flew “like bowling pins” and people screamed in terror and fled in every direction as a killer truck ploughed through a crowd at Bastille Day celebrations in this French city, killing 84 people in an unprecedented terror attack.

Many who survived the horrific Thursday night carnage at Promenade des Anglais, the main street in Nice, recalled how the heavy duty white colour truck drove into unsuspecting men, women and children, crushing everyone.

In no time, joyous scenes turned into blood-curdling horror, French and other media reports quoted witnesses as saying. 

Journalist Damien Allemand, like countless others, had just finished enjoying the fireworks and was watching kids throw rocks in the sea when, suddenly, everything went wrong.

When he heard the first screams from a distance, Allemand thought some fireworks may have gone out of control.

“A fraction of a second later, a huge white truck flew by at a crazy speed, driving over people, twisting the wheel to cut down the maximum number of people,” he said, recalling those deathly moments. 

“I saw bodies fly like bowling pins along its path. Heard noises, screaming that I will never forget. I was frozen with fear,” he wrote in a post.

As people began to run in different directions, many not knowing why except that something was dangerously wrong, the frightened Allemand, like hundreds more, took refuge in one of the many roadside restaurants.

When he came out, he bumped into a friend, Raymond, around 50, who was in tears and who gasped: “There are dead bodies everywhere.” Indeed there were, every five meters, and limbs. And lots of blood. 

Not satisfied with running over people, the killer driver — identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin — opened fire at revellers before police shot him dead.

Dominique Molina was on a hotel balcony when she heard “banging sounds” the truck made as it ran over people. She heard shrieking and saw flocks of people run frantically among fallen bodies.

Her husband Tony said they saw at least 10 bodies strewn on the street. “These bodies kind of sat. It was sad, because there were families lying down, crying next to these bodies.” Maryam Violet was at a restaurant when a frightened mob ran into it to take shelter. Confused, she went out and couldn’t believe her eyes.

“I saw ... a lot of single dead bodies with no one around them,” she told CNN. There were also fallen bicycles, street lamps and debris everywhere.

There were disturbing videos of the crowd jumping into the sea to save their lives, BFMTV reported. Another video showed people screaming as well as running everywhere.

An American witness told journalists that he was standing 15 feet away as the truck drove into the crowd “mowing bodies over” and accelerating as it hit the victims.

Among the first to die was a middle-aged Muslim woman. Two of her sons and other family members stood around her body, weeping.

So numerous were the bodies that to protect their dignity, people covered some of them with tablecloths snatched from nearby restaurants.

It later transpired that the truck had come from a side street near a children’s hospital, taken a left and mounted the sidewalk opposite a row of balconied seaside villas and apartment buildings.

Although it was night, the trucks’s headlights were off. And there was no honking.

“Nobody in the way stood a chance,” said one man, Pierre Roux.

The beach attendants were the first to reach the scene. They brought water for the wounded and towels to spread over the dead. 

By the time police officers arrived, it was all over. All they could do, after killing the truck driver, was to direct the shell-shocked survivors where to go. —IANS

Europe under attack 

June 28, 2016: At least 45 people are killed and hundreds wounded as three suspected IS militants open fire at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport. Two of them enter the building and blow themselves up, and the third detonates explosives at the entrance 

June 14: A Frenchman of Moroccan origin stabs a police commander to death outside his home in a Paris suburb and kills his partner, who also worked for the police. The attacker told police he was answering an appeal by Islamic State

March 22: Three Islamic State suicide bombers, all Belgians, blow themselves up at Brussels airport and in a metro train in the Belgian capital, killing 32 people. The police find links with the November attacks in Paris

Nov 13, 2015: Paris is rocked by multiple gun-and-bomb attacks on entertainment sites in which 130 people die and 368 are wounded. IS claims responsibility. Two of the 10 perpetrators were Belgian citizens and three others French

Oct 10: Two bombs explode seconds apart at a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups near Ankara’s main train station, killing 102 people. Turkey blames Islamic State for suicide bombings

Jan 7-9: Two Islamist gunmen break into an editorial meeting of weekly Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7, killing 17. Another militant kills a policewoman the next day and takes hostages at a supermarket on Jan 9, killing four before being shot 

May 24, 2014: Four people are killed in a shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. The attacker was French Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, who was subsequently arrested in Marseille, France. Extradited, he is awaiting trial in Belgium