Reports have surfaced that one man’s heroic actions may have helped bring the Nice attacker’s rampage to a stop.
According to The Independent, the attacker, 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was slowed when a member of the public leapt onto the vehicle and wrestled the driver.
Police have confirmed that the two kilometre charge could’ve been even longer if not for the courage of a member of the public.
The unnamed man is reported to have hurled himself into the cab when the 20 tonne truck became held up by an obstruction.
He then wrestled with Lahouaiej, who grabbed a revolver and fired several shots before being shot dead by two officers.
Eyewitness Eric Ciotti told Europe 1 that as people tried to flee from the truck, someone jumped in and was able to help the police kill the man.
He told the radio station:
A person jumped on to the truck to try to stop it. It’s at that moment that the police were able to neutralise the terrorist.
I won’t forget the look of the policewoman who intercepted the killer.
Another eye-witness, Nader El Shafei, told the BBC that at first he thought it was an accident.
He said:
I kept yelling at him, waving with my hands to stop and trying to tell him that there is a lot people under his truck – dead already.
Suddenly I saw him picking up something like a cellphone. I thought he would call the ambulance for the accident but it seemed that I was wrong, because he just picked up his gun and he started to shoot the police.
They knew that would be a gun shooting so they just killed him right away – they did not wait to negotiate or something, they just opened fire on him.
85 people lost their lives in the horrific attack and another 50 are said to be in a critical condition, according to a statement from French President, Francois Hollande.
Our thoughts are with the friends and family of all those affected.
