2016 Nice truck attack

2016 Nice attack
The Promenade des Anglais, the site of the attack
Route of the attacker from west to east
Location	Promenade des Anglais, Nice, France
Coordinates	43.6936°N 7.2557°E / 43.6936; 7.2557
Date	14 July 2016 (Bastille Day) c. 22:30 - 22:35 CEST (UTC+02:00)
Attack type	Vehicular assault, shooting
Weapons	Cargo truck, 7.65mm pistol
Deaths	87 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	434
Assailant	Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel

On the evening of 14 July 2016, a 19 tonne cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, resulting in the death of 86 people and injuring 434. The driver was Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian resident of France. The attack ended following an exchange of gunfire, during which Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot and killed by police.

Within hours of the attack, the French government extended the state of emergency, declared following the Paris attacks, for another three months, and announced an intensification of the French military attacks on ISIL in Syria and Iraq. Later on 15 July, they announced three days of national mourning starting 16 July. On 16 July, thousands of extra police and soldiers were deployed while the government called on citizens to join the reserve forces.

Also on 16 July, both Amaq News Agency and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)'s official al-Bayan radio station claimed the attack was executed in response to ISIL's calls to attack citizens of nations fighting them. The next day, Agence France-Presse described the Nice attack as the third major Islamist terrorist attack in France since the beginning of 2015, following the Île-de-France attacks in January of that year and the Paris attacks in November 2015.

On 21 July, Paris prosecutor François Molins said that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel planned the attack for months and had help from accomplices. As of 1 August 2016, six suspects had been taken in custody on charges of "terror offences" related to the attack.

Background

Bastille Day celebrations on beach below Promenade des Anglais, 2014

On the morning before the attack, French President François Hollande said the state of emergency put in place after the November 2015 Paris attacks would end after the Tour de France finished on 26 July 2016. France had just finished hosting the Euro 2016 football tournament, during which the country had extensive security measures in place. Some matches were played in Nice, ending with the England–Iceland match on 27 June.

On the evening of 14 July in Nice, the Bastille Day celebrations on the waterfront Promenade des Anglais, dubbed "Prom'Party" by the city of Nice, drew crowds of 30,000 and included an aerial display by the French Air Force.

The Promenade des Anglais had been closed to traffic and, as in preceding years, a long section including the large hotels had been converted into a pedestrian zone. The customary Bastille Day fireworks display took place between 22:00 and 22:20.

Attack

Timeline of attack

July 11:

• Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel rented a 19-tonne Renault Midlum 270 cargo truck in Saint-Laurent-du-Var.

14 July:

• 21:34 - Lahouaiej-Bouhlel reported to have arrived on bicycle in Auriol quarter of Nice to recuperate truck.
• App. 22:00 - Lahouaiej-Bouhlel reported to have arrived in Magnan quarter of Nice.
• 22:27 - Lahouaiej-Bouhlel reported to have sent SMS message concerning firearms.
• App. 22:30 - Lahouaiej-Bouhlel turned truck eastward onto Promenade des Anglais near the Fondation Lenval Children's Hospital.
• 22:33 - Municipal police at Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen report truck.
• 22:35:47 - The truck came to a halt next to the Palais de la Méditerranée hotel.
• App. 22:35 - Lahouaiej-Bouhlel shot dead by police.

All times are CEST (UTC+2).

Annotated map showing course of attack along the Promenade des Anglais

The white truck, a Renault Midlum, in the distance on the Promenade des Anglais on the morning after the attack

On 14 July in Nice, at approximately 22:30, just after the end of the Bastille Day fireworks display, a white 19 tonne cargo truck emerged from the Magnan quarter of Nice and turned eastward on to the Promenade des Anglais, then closed to traffic, near the Fondation Lenval Children's Hospital.

Travelling at close to 90 kilometres (56 mi) per hour and mounting on to the pavement as if out of control, it hit and killed numerous bystanders before passing the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen, where it was first reported by municipal police. 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the children's hospital, at the intersection with Boulevard Gambetta, the truck accelerated and mounted on to the kerb to force its way through the police barrier—a police car, a crowd control barrier and lane separators—marking the beginning of the pedestrianised zone.

Having broken through the barrier, the truck, driving in a zigzag fashion, knocked down random members of the crowd milling about on the pavement and in the three traffic lanes on the seaward side of the Promenade. The driver tried to stay on the pavement—returning to the traffic lanes only when blocked by a bus shelter or pavilion—thus increasing the number of deaths. After reaching the Hotel Negresco, the progress of the truck, already travelling less fast, was slowed down by a passing cyclist, whose attempts to open the cabin door were abandoned after being threatened with a gun through the window; followed by a motorcyclist, in pursuit since the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen, who threw his scooter under the front wheels of the truck at the intersection with rue Meyerbeer, striking blows at the driver from the running board before being struck with the butt of the driver's gun. The driver fired several shots from his 7.65 mm firearm as police arrived; they returned fire with their 9mm Sig Sauer handguns, gave chase to the vehicle and attempted to disable it.

The truck travelled a further 200 metres (660 ft) until, in a badly damaged state, it came to halt at 22:35 next to the Palais de la Méditerranée approximately five minutes after the start of the attack. There, two national police officers shot and killed the driver. There were multiple bullet holes in the windscreen and cab of the truck. The entire attack took place over a distance of 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi), between numbers 11 and 147 of the Promenade des Anglais, resulting in the deaths of 86 people and creating high levels of panic in the crowds. Some were injured as a result of jumping on to the pebbled beach several metres below the Promenade.

In addition to the firearm used during the attack, an ammunition magazine, a fake pistol, a dummy grenade, a replica Kalashnikov rifle, and a replica M16 rifle were found in the cabin of the truck. Also recovered were a mobile phone and personal documents, including an identity card, a driving licence and credit cards. There were several pallets and a bicycle in the rear of the truck.

Perpetrator

Main article: Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, on his residency permit

French police identified the perpetrator as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old man of Tunisian nationality, born in Tunisia, with a French residency permit and living in Nice. His parents live in Tunisia and rarely heard from him since he moved to France in 2005. His father said he underwent psychiatric treatment before he moved to France. He married a French-Tunisian cousin, living in Nice, with whom he had three children. According to his wife's lawyer, he was repeatedly reported for domestic violence and the couple separated. Police analysis of his mobile phone showed that after this separation he had numerous sexual relations with both men and women. He was known to French police for five prior criminal offences, notably for threatening behaviour, violence and petty theft. He was not registered as a national security risk (fiche "S") with French authorities and, at the time of the attack, he was not known by French or Tunisian authorities to have links to terrorist organizations.

François Molins, the prosecutor leading the investigation, announced that information gathered since the attack suggested that, except for a short period leading up to the attack, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was "a young man completely uninvolved in religious issues and not a practising Muslim, who ate pork, drank alcohol, took drugs and had an unbridled sex life." Neighbours reported that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel rarely spoke to them. Authorities believe Lahouaiej-Bouhlel became radicalised shortly before the attack and the transformation happened quickly. Prosecutor François Molins said he had a "clear, recent interest in the radical jihadist movement".

Friends said he began attending a mosque in April and grew a beard for religious reasons only days before the attack. He also began expressing extreme Islamist views and support for Islamic State. Police found images of dead bodies, Osama bin Laden, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the Islamic State flag, and a cover of Charlie Hebdo on his computer, along with links to jihadist websites; he had shown friends an Islamic State beheading video on his phone. An uncle in Tunisia of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel said he heard from a relative that his nephew had been recently indoctrinated by an Algerian Islamic State member in Nice.

An examination of Lahouaiej Bouhlel's phone records found evidence he was in contact with "known Islamic radicals", although an intelligence source noted this "could just be a coincidence, given the neighbourhood where he lived. Everyone knows everyone there. He seems to have known people who knew Omar Diaby", a local Islamist believed to be linked with Al Nusra. Days before the attack, he sent 240,000 dinars, approximately 100,000 euros, to his family in Tunisia. His brother said he received images of him laughing among the holiday crowds in Nice hours before the attack. The newspaper Nice-Matin published an interview with an eyewitness who recounted hearing from his balcony "Allahu Akbar" during the attack, with similar reports being circulated by other news organizations and on social media. Officials have not confirmed the press reports, while BBC News dismissed the rumours on social media as false.

Victims

The attacker killed 84 people instantly and injured 434, 52 critically; 25 remained on life support the next day; two of the injured succumbed to their injuries three respectively six weeks after the attack. As of 17 July 65 remained in hospital, 18 in critical condition. At least ten of the dead were children. The figure of 307 indicates the total number of people admitted into hospital with injuries after the attack; some of these admissions did not occur immediately. Of the 86 dead, 39 were French nationals and the remaining 46 were nationals of 18 countries other than France, with the most recent victim's nationality unconfirmed. According to a local Muslim spokesman, at least 30 of the dead were Muslims.

By 19 July, French authorities had formally identified the then 84 victims, with detailed lists published by Agence France-Presse. Two days later, the Hôtel de Ville in Nice was draped with two long black banners recording the names of these 84 victims. An 85th person died from his or her injuries three weeks after the attack, and an 86th person died six weeks after the attack.

Nationalities of victims

Nationality	Dead	Injured	Ref.
Algeria	5
Armenia	1
Australia		5
Belgium	1	1
Brazil	2	3
China		2
Czech Republic		1
Estonia	2	4
France	39
Georgia	1
Germany	3	2
Hungary		1
Ireland		1
Italy	6	3
Kazakhstan	4
Madagascar	2	4
Malaysia		1
Morocco	4	1
Netherlands		3
Poland	2
Portugal		4
Romania	1	4
Russia	2	3
Singapore		1
Switzerland	2
Tunisia	4
Ukraine	1	2
United Kingdom		1
United States	3
Not yet confirmed	1	268
Total	86	307

Investigation

The Hotel Negresco, where the attacker shot at police, was later used for triage

The case was assigned to Paris prosecutor François Molins, who has national jurisdiction in matters of terrorism. In his initial statements, Molins said the attack "bore the hallmarks of jihadist terrorism" although a preliminary investigation by French officials had not connected Lahouaiej-Bouhlel to any international terror groups.

On 15 July, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's estranged wife and a man were arrested, followed by three more men the next day. The prosecutor's office did not immediately disclose who the men were or why anyone was detained. A source close to the investigation told CNN local associates of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel who were detained for questioning said he started speaking in support of ISIL in the days before the attack. His wife was released on 17 July.

On 17 July, two more people, a man and a woman, were arrested in Nice following a police raid the day before. The two people arrested were Albanians suspected of helping Lahouaiej-Bouhlel obtain the firearm used in the attack. Police sources have disclosed to BFMTV that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's mobile phone, discovered in the truck after he was shot by police, has been one of their main sources of information concerning his activities and contacts prior to the attack. Phone records showed he contacted some of the six arrested, and may have contacted known Islamic radicals in his neighbourhood. He was found to have sent text messages to an unidentified contact during the attack, asking for "more weapons".

On 18 July, Molins announced that CCTV footage showed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel in the rented truck surveying the area of the attack on 12 and 13 July. He said that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel stopped the truck in front of the Hotel Negresco with "warning lights" lit early on 12 July.

Charging of suspects

File:Palais de la Méditerranée.jpg

Palais de la Méditerranée, where the attack ended

On 21 July, Molins announced that investigations showed the attack was planned for months and the driver had accomplices. Four men and one woman faced preliminary terrorism-related charges for their alleged roles in helping Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. Those facing charges were a French-Tunisian born in Nice, aged 21; a French-Tunisian born in Tunisia, 40; a Tunisian, 37; an Albanian, 38; and his Albanian-born wife, 42, who had dual French-Albanian nationality.

The Albanian couple were reported to have supplied the firearm used by Lahouaiej-Bouhlel during the attack. Molins said that the younger French-Tunisian was questioned about breaking the French law on weapons in relation to a terrorist enterprise; while under arrest, he disclosed the location of a Kalashnikov rifle mentioned in text messages. It was reported that immediately before the attack he was in communication through text messages with Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who thanked him in one for the firearm supplied the previous day.

Molins said that the Tunisian suspect filmed the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais during the night of 14–15 July, when it was filled with emergency services and journalists, before taking a selfie. Phone records showed that he and Lahouaiej-Bouhlel contacted each other 1,278 times between July 2015 and July 2016. He was said to have sent a text message to Lahouaiej-Bouhlel in January 2015 shortly after the attack on Charlie Hebdo saying, "I am not Charlie ... I am happy, they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job." The older of the French-Tunisians was said to have sent Lahouaiej-Bouhlel a Facebook message in April reading: "Load the truck with 2,000 tons of iron and fuck, release the brakes my friend and I will watch". According to Molins, fingerprints on the passenger door and selfies placed the Tunisian and French-Tunisian in the truck in the days before the attack. He also said that CCTV footage showed the Tunisian suspect seated next to Lahouaiej-Bouhlel as he drove the truck along the Promenade des Anglais on the evening of 12 July.

Although the youngest suspect had a police record for petty crime and drugs, none of the suspects were known to intelligence services. All five suspects were held in custody and charged under the French laws on terrorism: the Tunisian and two French-Tunisians were charged as accomplices in "murder by a group with terror links", and the Albanian couple was charged with breaking the law on weapons in relation to a terrorist enterprise.

On 25 July, police arrested two more men in the vicinity of the main railway station in Nice. It was reported that both their photographs had been found on Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's mobile phone, with one of them visible on a selfie taken next to the truck. One of those detained was released without charge while the other, a 36-year-old caught on the selfie, was transferred to Paris on 1 August for further questioning. There, he was charged with "conspiracy in relation to a terrorist enterprise" and jailed.

Reactions

French government

French flag at half-mast in Tours on the day after the attack, which was followed by three days of national mourning

Memorial at the site of the attack

Tributes on the Promenade des Anglais

15 July

French President François Hollande made known at 00:15h French time on 15 July, that he had consulted his Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve, and was returning to Paris from Avignon, expecting to arrive in the French capital at 01:15h to have an emergency Interior Ministry meeting regarding the attacks.

At 00:59h, Cazeneuve initiated the ORSEC plan, the French emergency plan for disasters.

At 03:47h, Hollande addressed the French nation in a televised broadcast from Paris. He assessed that "the terrorist nature of this attack can’t be denied" and linked the attack to Islamic terrorism: "all of France is being menaced by fundamentalist Islamic terrorism". He announced a three-month extension of the state of emergency, previously due to end on 26 July, announced an intensification of the French military attacks on ISIL in Syria and Iraq, and announced that more security personnel would be deployed.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls later that day announced three days of national mourning on 16–18 July.

Valls said in the France 2 television's evening news programme at 8:00 p.m. on 15 July, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was "probably linked to radical Islam one way or another". Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, on the coinciding television news of TF1: "We have an individual who was not known to intelligence services for activities linked to radical Islam", when asked whether he could confirm the attacker’s motives were linked to jihadism he replied: "No".

16–17 July

On 16 July French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said: "I remind you that Daesh's ideologue, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, has for several weeks repeated calls to attack directly, even individually, Frenchmen, in particular, or Americans, wherever they are, by any means necessary (…) It is murder, and Daesh’s claim of responsibility comes later, as has happened in other recent events".

Bernard Cazeneuve on 16 July, after ISIL had claimed the attacker as one of its soldiers, said: if Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was radicalised, "It seems that he was radicalised very quickly — in any case these are the elements that have come up from the testimony of the people around him."

Cazeneuve on 16 or 17 July announced plans to increase security in response to the attack by calling 12,000 police reservists to add to the 120,000 person force. He urged "all patriotic citizens" to join the reserve forces to boost security following the attacks.

18 July and later

On 18 July, France observed a one-minute silence in remembrance of those killed by the attack. In Nice, as the Prime Minister arrived to observe the silence, the crowd booed him and some shouted for his resignation, with some calling him a murderer. President Hollande was similarly booed at by crowds when visiting Nice the day after the attack. The booing was described by BBC as "unprecedented", and as "a stark warning of how the mood in the country has changed" in comparison to public responses after other recent major terrorist attacks in France.

On 21 July, the state of emergency was formally extended until 31 January 2017.

A week after the attack, the anti-terror directorate of the National Police (SDAT) requested that the local authorities in Nice destroy CCTV footage of the attack, arguing that leaked images would compromise the dignity of victims and could be used as propaganda by terrorist organizations. The request has been refused by local authorities who have counterargued that the CCTV footage might provide evidence that the National Police had placed inadequate security measures on the Promenade des Anglais on 14 July.

On 26 July, three Nice residents who had chased the truck during the attack were presented with medals for bravery by the local authorities in Nice.

French opposition

Alain Juppé, former prime minister of France now mayor of Bordeaux and hoping to run for president of France in the April 2017 presidential election, and Christian Estrosi, former Nice mayor, both members of French oppositional party Les Républicains, on 15 July raised the question of whether more could have been done to prevent the Nice attack.

International

Main article: International comments on the 2016 Nice attack

Leaderships of 49 countries and five supranational bodies expressed abhorrence of the attack and condolences for families and for France. US’s President Barack Obama at 01:55h French time on 15 July on Twitter labeled the attack as possible “Terrorism”, a label soon repeated by French President François Hollande (see above) at 03:47h, German Chancellor Angela Merkel at 08:12h, and several other international leaders.

Claim of ISIL responsibility

On 16 July, the Amaq News Agency, called Lahouaiej-Bouhlel "a soldier of the Islamic State." It cited an "insider source" which said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel "executed the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations, which fight the Islamic State".

Later that same day, ISIL's official al-Bayan radio station said the attacker executed a "new, special operation using a truck" and "the crusader countries know that no matter how much they enforce their security measures and procedures, it will not stop the mujahideen from striking."

Islam and Christianity

The first Islamic funeral ceremony of victims of the Nice attack took place on 19 July 2016 in the Ar-Rahma (The Mercifulness) mosque, the oldest of Nice and the largest of Alpes-Maritimes. Last rites and honours were rendered to a 23-year-old Tunisian woman, her 4-year-old child, and a young man. Rector and imam Otmane Aïssaoui said in his sermon: “The sole frontier for which one should halt is this: the respect for a man, for a woman, irrespective of their colour of skin, their origin. A truth one can find in the Gospel, in the Torah, even in Buddhism!” Citing a Quranic verse he threw out towards the murderer: “At the Last Judgment, he will be asked: 'why did you kill that little child of four years old?'”

Invited to speak was also the priest of nearby Catholic church Saint-Pierre d'Ariane. Father Patrick Bruzzone addressed the gathering with: “My brothers… I say 'my brothers' because, today more then ever, when one man is hurt, the whole of humanity is hurt”. He proceeded to the coffins, for, as he said, “doing what I would do in my own church”: bending over them, as to embrace them. Those gathered responded, in unison: “Allahu akbar”.

On 21 July, in Catholic church Saint-Pierre d’Arène in which' parish the Nice attack had taken place, a commemoration was held for “people of all religions and even beyond that”. The priest and the vicar called for “the calming down, necessary for taking at hand our common future in this torn city and in the whole country. To contemplate together, in order to solidly reconstruct the social ties that now are increasingly crumbled and largely ruined”.

Social media

Immediately after the attack, when it remained unclear whether the threat had ended, people used social media, particularly Twitter, to help others find shelter, using the hashtag #PortesOuvertesNice (Open Doors Nice), a variation of a hashtag used in other recent attacks in France.

Consequences

Cultural

Organisers of the 20th Nice Jazz Festival, scheduled to begin on 16 July, cancelled the event in the wake of the attack. Pop singer Rihanna cancelled a concert scheduled for 15 July at Nice's Allianz Stadium. At London's Royal Albert Hall on 15 July, the opening night of the 2016 Proms Festival paid tribute to the people of Nice, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing a rendition of La Marseillaise.

Financial markets

European stocks opened lower and then closed mixed on Friday as investor sentiment was dampened by the attack in France. The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.38 percent, French CAC 40 down 0.4 percent, German DAX down 0.4 percent and British FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent before closing down at 0.32 percent in STOXX 600, 0.6 percent down in CAC 40, 0.01 percent down in DAX, and 0.22 percent up in FTSE 100. Airlines, along with other travel share, were some of the hardest hit companies, with Flybe and EasyJet down by around 3.7 per cent and three per cent respectively.

Tourism

French ailing tourism sector, already reeling from repeated terror attacks in Paris, is suffering a further hit following Thursday's attack which left 84 people dead in Nice. Following the attack, the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) urged British tourists to follow the instructions of French authorities, who cancelled events and closed the promenade and a number of public beaches in Nice. Cancellations and last minute changes to European holidays have risen this summer with travellers increasingly concerned about the threat of terrorism. Terror attacks in Belgium, France and Turkey have prompted holidaymakers to cancel their bookings or seek out other destinations perceived to be safe. The recent failed coup in Turkey and the terror attack in Nice, France, are expected to add to the pressure.“This is not going to be a good year,” European Tour Operators Association chief executive Tom Jenkins. “There is a real suppression of demand for destinations like Belgium and France.”.

See also

• List of massacres in France
• List of terrorist incidents in July 2016
• Terrorism in France
• Vehicular assault as a terrorist tactic

External links

• Media related to 2016 Attack in Nice at Wikimedia Commons
• 2016 Nice attack at Wikinews
• Quotations related to 2016 Nice attack at Wikiquote