Nice attack: Witnesses describe Bastille Day terror

A lorry racing into a crowd after Bastille Day celebrations in the French city of Nice has killed at least 84 people, injuring at least 18 more.

Witnesses in Nice have been describing the scenes of terror and panic as the tragedy unfolded.

Nader El Shafei has described to the BBC how he came to look the attacker in the face for about a minute before witnessing the final gun battle."We thought at the beginning it was just an accident," he said, "but then I saw him pulling out his gun and trying to shoot a group of policemen who were coming running towards him.

"I saw him for about one minute - face to-face - but he was not looking at me. He was looking out of the window, appearing very nervous.

"I kept yelling at him, waving with my hand, trying to tell him that there were a lot of dead people underneath his truck. But he did not give any attention to anyone outside the truck.

"Police killed him straight away - they didn't wait to negotiate - they just opened fire on him."

Eric Ciotti, a regional lawmaker, told Europe 1 radio that he saw someone jump on to the truck to try to stop it. "It's at that moment that the police were able to neutralise this terrorist. I won't forget the look of this policewoman who intercepted the killer," he said. He also said some people jumped into the sea to flee the scene.

US Citizen Julie Holland, on holiday in Nice with her two daughters, told The Guardian that she saw the truck driving at full speed through the crowds on the promenade.

"We heard screams, and people started running into the restaurant," she said. "We hid in the kitchen, behind a stove.

"As soon as the gunfire stopped we went through the back door to a hotel down the street. A policeman eventually escorted us back to our hotel at around 3am. There were bodies everywhere. My daughters saw bodies. Lots of them."

Pouya from Toronto in Canada told the BBC that people were enjoying the carnival atmosphere on the promenade created a by a firework display and a jazz band when he heard "lots of screams" and people running in different directions."I didn't know what was going on, it felt surreal and I didn't move but thought it must be some kind of practical joke.

"Then I saw the truck coming straight at me swerving all over the place. It was perhaps 50 yards away. After that there was no conscious thought, my body took over, time slowed down and I ran and thank God I got out of the way.

"I jumped into a doorway and a very nice Frenchman let me and about 15 other people into his apartment. We stayed in there for a while and then when it was safe we left. There were lots of panicked people, dead bodies were in the street and there were police everywhere."He said the truck "came out nowhere" and started "ploughing" into the crowd.

"This lorry just mounted the kerb, across the street from us and the next thing, all you could hear was banging and shouting and screaming," he said.

"There was a lot of confusion, misdirection, because we didn't know what exactly was happening, why it was happening."

Mr Mullan said he and his girlfriend "bailed out" of the restaurant through a side exit in order to get to a safer position, going through barriers into an apartment complex behind the building.

"We were pushing all the buzzers to try and get into the apartment blocks," he said. "Eventually we got in."

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Kayla Repan, a visitor from the US, was among the hundreds who had gathered to watch the celebrations and fireworks. "The whole city was running," she told Associated Press. "I got extremely frightened and ran away from the promenade. It was chaos."

Damien Allemand, a journalist with the local newspaper Nice Matin, was at the waterfront after the fireworks had finished.

"A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people," he said."I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget."

Nice resident Wassim Bouhlel: "There was carnage on the road," he said. "Bodies everywhere."

He described how the driver got out of the truck with a gun and started shooting after the lorry had travelled down the road, running over everything that got in its way.

"It zigzagged - you had no idea where it was going. My wife... a metre away... she was dead. The lorry ripped through everything... poles, trees. We have never seen anything like it. Some people were hanging on the door and tried to stop it."

British tourist Kevin Harris was in a hotel overlooking the scene of the tragedy."I heard a lot of screaming and shouting," he said. "I came out onto my terrace and in front of me I could see lots of what appeared to be bodies lying on the road just outside of where I'm sitting now actually.""Running through crowds in Nice with kids and terrified. Never taking kids to a public event again. Finally back to hotel. Hate this!"

She said it was the "scariest thing ever running through crowds with boys. Got back to hotel and couldn't get in for people seeking refuge!

"Can't stop shaking. Hate that my boys had to experience this," she said.

"It had been a normal evening and we were just walking around," Joel Fenster told the BBC. "Suddenly people started running, there were screams and police sirens and policemen shouting at us to evacuate.

"It was terrifying, especially because we didn't know what was going on. At the time we only had heard some kind of gunshots and we assumed that there were people running around with guns.Kayla Repan, a visitor from the US, was among the hundreds who had gathered to watch the celebrations and fireworks. "The whole city was running," she told Associated Press. "I got extremely frightened and ran away from the promenade. It was chaos.""There were huge numbers of families. When we were crouching down behind a car, there was a mother with a young child and she was just trying to tell her young daughter that nothing's going on, that all is going to be fine."

"I live 200 metres from the promenade and it took nearly one and a half hours to get back to my flat because all the roads have been closed down," BBC producerRoy Calley said.

"The police have completely taken over the city, the promenade has now been closed down. Everybody was physically pushed away from the site and told to get back in no uncertain terms by the police.

Another witness, Tarubi Wahid Mosta, posted a video on Facebook which showed photos of an abandoned doll and pushchair. He said that he had come home with a victim's Yorkshire terrier.

"I almost stepped on a corpse, it was horrible. It looked like a battlefield," he said, while describing the sense of helplessness surrounding the carnage.