“Normally on a day like today there would be many people on the promenade but today people are staying away. People are scared. A lot of people were here yesterday and they saw other people running when the truck loaded with explosives was just going through the city wiping people out,” Hervieux said.
“People were gathered to watch the fireworks display for Bastille Day which is the nation’s most important holiday, independence day here in France. After running people down with his truck, the attacker opened fire but the people weren’t aware that these were gunshots. They thought it was some sort of fire crackers going off,” the journalist said.
She further spoke about how it remains unclear as to how the truck got onto the promenade in the first place considering that the area was closed off by the police.
“It was apparently very well organized and it is absolutely terrifying for people here who say how you can plan your life when this could happen any time,” Hervieux said.
She further spoke about the organization of the event itself and how there was a large number of police and soldiers in the area but that did not prevent the terror attack.
“It is just stunning to people because there were so many police and camouflaged soldiers. You see this all the time now, in Paris also. I guess in the end what people have taken away from this is that you can’t anticipate these sorts of attacks.”
“You can’t say that if we just have a bit more security we will be safe,” the journalist added.
Another eye witness of the terrible attack was Kira Kalinina, who was vacationing with her family in Nice when the attack took place.
“We were driving along the Promenade des Anglais after visiting guests. We stopped in Nice when the fireworks were just coming to an end. There were no roadblocks at the entrance to the city and we quietly drove from A8 highway to the embankment.”
She further said that she managed to arrive safely to the blockade near Gambetta Boulevard.
“We were standing at the traffic light close to the pedestrian zone. Suddenly a wild cry, people began to flee in terror and the next moment, a huge truck went flying by us just 2 meters away from us,” Kalinina told Sputnik in a comment.
She further said that it seemed that the truck was going at a speed of about 100-120 km and had a very determined direction.
“It seemed to me that he was traveling at a speed of 100-120, clearly, directly, deliberately to kill!”
Kalinina started to panic to get away from there as quickly as possible, so she tried to drive on the bypass road to get home.
“The crowd did not yet know what had happened. I stopped on the road that led down to the market and city hall, but there was either an accident or simply some guys had blocked the cars after the fireworks. I started to turn around again, and suddenly people came running from around the corner, screaming,” the eye witness explained.
“I froze, did not know what to do. I told the nanny to duck and protect the sleeping child,” Kalinina said.
She recalled that after that the situation got calmer and she drove quickly on to the A8 highway. The fire brigades were moving fast from Cannes. But they came about 20 minutes after the attack. According to the witness during that time she managed to drive around half of Nice.
“We saw the helicopter, which is currently shown in the photos. Actually, the truck drove 7-10 minutes after the end of the fireworks, so the main crowd had time to walk away, otherwise there would have been many more victims. We did not film anything because we had to get away quickly,” Kalinina concluded.
The driver was shot dead by police. According to ID documents found inside the truck, he was a 31-year-old man who was a resident of Nice and of Tunisian origin. It is unclear whether he had any accomplices.
President Francois Hollande and other French officials referred to it as a terrorist attack and declared three days of national mourning.
