France’s truck attack marks deadly twist in European terror

French police officials told The Associated Press on Friday that identity papers found near the attacker belonged to a 31-year-old of Tunisian descent.

The Nice assault is the third major terrorist attack in France since the January 2015 shootings at the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a kosher store near Paris. Authorities were not sure if he was the only one involved in Thursday’s attack.

Attacking soft targets has been the hallmark of modern terrorism, yet according to Hoffman, the attack in Nice could be a crucial step forward for the organizations that are trying to damage the fabric of liberal Western societies.

There were 11,165 Thais in France at the time of the attack, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Partiers in summer apparel ran for their lives down Nice’s palm tree-lined Promenade des Anglais, the city’s famous seaside boulevard.

Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group, and French President Francois Hollande was booed in Nice on Friday by people who blamed government authorities for failing to enforce sufficient security measures.

“France was struck on the day of its national holiday, July 14, the symbol of liberty”, Hollande said as he denounced “this monstrosity”.

The attack falls in line with a call made by Islamic State group spokesman Abu Mohammed al Adnani, who urged followers in 2014 to kill unbelievers with cars if they can not find more specialized weaponry.

“My partner took my hand immediately and we started running with everybody and honestly in my head I had no idea what was going on and the music was so loud and I didn’t really see a truck, but just people running and screaming and crying and people carrying their children, and it was just very frightening”. The state of emergency was due to expire later this month. Lance Armstrong lived in Nice and trained on its roads. “A new era because we are facing people who are kamikazes”.

“It’s a new era”, said Thierry Clair, the national secretary for all areas outside Paris for the UNSA police union. “Their aim is to kill a maximum of people”.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain paid their respects to the victims of the Nice attack by visiting the residence of Yves Saint-Geour, the French ambassador to Spain on Friday 15 July. The use of a truck suggests that potential terrorists aren’t necessarily limited to those with military training or the ability to create explosives.

Hollande said army and gendarme reserves would be mobilised to help increase patrols and relieve tired soldiers and officers who have seen little respite in recent months. Nice was home to a prolific producer of French-language jihadist recruiting videos, a former petty drug dealer named Omar Omsen, who is now fighting in Syria.

One man came out of the Pasteur Hospital in Nice, limping with an ankle injury and with blood on his feet and shorts.

Tuan said righ after the attack, the foreign ministry instructed the Vietnamese embassy in France to urgently work with local agencies and the Associations of Vietnamese in France to obtain information relating to Vietnamese citizens.