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EYEWITNESSES AT THE Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, where 84 people were killed when a truck ploughed through the crowd, have described the panic in the aftermath of the terrorist attack.
Witness Roy Calley, who said he lived 200 metres from the promenade, told the BBC there was “all hell breaking loose” and the situation was “pretty horrendous”.
“It was a celebratory atmosphere, it was fun, people were enjoying themselves.
“Suddenly I heard a huge, what I can only describe as maybe an explosion or a crash.
“A lot of people were screaming. That was followed by what I thought were maybe gunshots.”
‘The fear on their faces’
A man named Nader told BFM television he had seen the whole attack from start to finish, and had initially thought the driver had “lost control”.
“I was in the street. He stopped just in front of me after he [crushed] a lot of people,” he said. “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.
Nader said he saw the driver pull out a gun and start shooting at police before they shot him dead.
Irishman Steven Milton told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he had been at the Bastille Day celebrations to watch the fireworks and had just left the promenade when he saw people running towards him screaming.
“The fear on their faces told us we had to run now,” he said.
Milton said he and his boyfriend, along with some others, hid in the storeroom of a restaurant about a block away from the scene.
We had no idea what was going on there, it was mixed feelings, absolute terror, there were two girls beside us we were trying to console.
“We didn’t know whether we should stay, some people left, some refused to go. Quite a few French teenagers were distraught, sobbing their eyes out trying to call their parents.”
‘People got trampled’
People screamed and scattered as the truck veered down the beachfront, where thousands of adults and children had gathered for the fireworks.
Several witnesses described how people hurled themselves off the promenade onto the beach below to escape the path of the truck.
Marie, a 37-year-old security guard at the nearby beachfront Massena Museum — which itself hosted Bastille Day festivities just hours before the attack — described the panic as people tried to flee.
“We saw hundreds of people rushing to get shelter,” she told AFP.
There were children, people got trampled.
In a Facebook video, witness Tarubi Wahid Mosta described how he had taken photos of the aftermath on the Promenade des Anglais — children’s toys lying abandoned; an empty pushchair.
“I almost stepped on a corpse, it was horrible. It looked like a battlefield,” he says in the video.
“All these bodies and their families …they spent hours on the ground holding the cold hands of bodies dismembered by the truck. You can’t even speak to them or comfort them.”
- © AFP 2016 with reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
If you are an Irish person in Nice, we’d like to hear from you. You can get in touch by emailing news@thejournal.ie.
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Was there in 94 in Thurles Stadium, camping on that racecourse nearby. Great festival, no scangers. Prodigy and Sounds Crowd Orchestra on stage
@Rear Admiral: 76 pathetic little middle class bigots.. and counting!!
I was excited until I got to ‘vegan food stalls’
Jesus wept …
@Dara O’Brien: a chipper that does just chips.
@John D12: ah they’d find some reason to protest against that too
Feile was just some of the best times of my life! Best of luck to them.
Prosecco bars and vegan food stalls, while sitting down and listening to some orchestral mishmash of brewing up a storm… how can in even be called Féile?
Incidentally their next project is to produce a movie about 3 estranged sisters who make amends during a cross country road trip to attend a great aunts funeral in Nebraska… and call it Jurassic Park 5
@Stephen Boland: Quality comment!
Transvision Vamp in ’91, Wendy James
Happy days
Feile was not the first multi day music festival in Ireland
@Mark Johnson: what?
@Naoimh Ó Murchadha: Lisdoonvarna and Macroom?
Castlebar…..”Occasion at the castle” weekend rock festival. Early 1980s.
Back in the days u could build a fire in the campsite and the after concert rave in the stands
Ah Jesus, brings back memories, some poor b&&&ard was always pushed over when in the portaloo.
Any yokes?
Geez sounds brilliant!!!
Great
Thurles music heads tried to revive Feile a few years ago too…..
@Mark Johnson: your comments are making no sense mark. What are you talking about?
@Naoimh Ó Murchadha: pretty clear to everyone else…
Adding in the word classical is a great way of dissuading “people referred to as scangers” like the way classical music has been successfully used in subway stations to reduce loitering and crime.
Could be great, but flip-side is this (coupled with nostalgic acts) is going attract more “people referred to as ..ahem.. boring”.
@Jazz Buckler: Dinosaur Dads in Reni hats boring everyone about “the good aul days” and when music wasn’t Shite before slipping off hometown catch an episode of Catastrophe
No offence Tom but you lads are the rest of the bands mentioned had their day. What an awful line-up
Before my time but from all accounts although it may have been a Mecca for Irish bands it was an absolute hell on earth for Irish music fans. A badly organised gathering full of drunken louts with very little by way of proper facilities on the ground.
Anyway, this is the new smooth corporate hipster version by all accounts.
@Gene Dexter: nah, it was brilliant! You weren’t there, you wouldn’t understand.
@Gene Dexter: u can’t help yourself can you, don’t know who u were talking to but feile was great craic
@Gene Dexter: Ridiculous comments on every article. Quite a sad little life you must have, by all accounts.
@Gene Dexter: if anyone wants to know the definition of a “snowflake” they only have to look at your comment. You’re actually complaining about an event you were too young to attend. Despite that I speak for all of us that were there and just want to thank you for taking offence on our behalf.
Can I bring my granny?
Féile mo thoín. Bring back the old line up maybe.
Feile ’93. Had my first experience there in a tent with my best buddy (first love) while his cousin slept beside us.
A few dates wouldn’t have gone astray…
The rave on the stand beside the horse parade pumped with tunes from a ghetoblaster. Followed in the morning with a visit to the Hare Krishna tent to get a wholesome breakfast of beans and rice. Simple delights
The rave on the stand beside the horse parade pumped with tunes from a ghetoblaster. Followed by a visit to the hare krishna tent for a breakfast of beans and rice. Happy days
Rave in the stand beside the horse parade pumped by tunes from a ghetoblaster. Followed by a trip to the hare Krishna tent for a breakfast of beans and rice. Happy days
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