Nice lorry attack: U2’s Bono ‘caught up in Bastille Day terror atrocity’

Bono was next to the Nice seafront when Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel tore through the Promenade des Anglais, killing 84 people and injuring dozens more.

Musicians Bono and Elton John, and the chef Alain Ducasse, were among a number of celebrities caught up in the Bastille Day massacre in Nice.

People gather at a makeshift memorial placed on the road for victims of the deadly Bastille Day attack in Nice.

The diners on Friday were gripped by fear as panicked people ran past the restaurant.

“Suddenly I saw people running, without shouting”, Anne-Laure Rubi, the owner of the La Petite Maison restaurant told Le Parisien newspaper. “We did not know what was happening”, the patron said, adding that there were fears that bombs could go off in the area and that there was a hostage situation unfolding at the nearby Meridien hotel. He didn’t want to say much.

Ms Rubi’s staff pulled down the shutters, and instructed everybody to hide and remain calm, until the all clear was given.

Bono took shelter inside the La Petite Maison restaurant in Nice, France, and waited for police to escort him and other diners to safety.

“The police were clearly very anxious that terrorists might still be at large and everybody was under suspicion”, the diner added.

Bono, who owns a property in nearby Eze, had been enjoying a relaxed evening with friends when the city was targeted at around 10.30pm.

After the attack, U2 posted on their Twitter account: “Love is bigger than anything in its way – Bono, Edge, Adam, Larry”.

And it is not the first time Bono has found himself at the centre of a French terror attack.

But instead of immediately fleeing the French capital, all four U2 members instead headed to the Bataclan the following morning, and paid their respects to the dead.

As a boy, Bono witnessed the Dublin and Monaghan bombings by the IRA back in 1974, killing 33 people.