Today is the Quatorze Juillet, the French national Holiday, so it is a day when an attempted Islamic terror attack is to be expected in France. Paris seems to have dodged the bullet this year, but not Nice. This is a breaking news story, so undoubtedly the details will change before I even finish typing and posting it. Here’s a rough outline so far:
This evening, as celebrants watched fireworks in Nice, a large truck plowed into the crowd at speed, traveling a considerable distance before stopping. At least sixty people are reportedly dead, and dozens more wounded. After the truck stopped, the driver was shot dead by police.
Simultaneously an accomplice with a gun fired shots and took hostages. He is reportedly holed up in a nearby hotel.
News sources:
‘30 Dead’ After Truck Crashes Into Crowd at Bastille Day Celebrations in Nice ‘Terror Attack’
Bastille Day revellers flee scene of truck attack in Nice
Reports on French tv that the driver of the truck was shot dead by police.
Witnesses describe there being “bodies everywhere”.
Panic in Nice as ‘Lorry Hits Crowd’
A lorry has struck a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations in the southern French city of Nice, media reports and witnesses say.
The incident took place on the Promenade des Anglais during a firework display, the reports said.
One image on Twitter showed about a dozen people lying on the street, some being tended to.
The local prefecture has urged people in the area to remain indoors, calling the incident “an attack”.
Some reports spoke of shots being exchanged between police and the occupants of the lorry but these have not been confirmed.
Social media video showed people running through the streets in panic following the incident.
A journalist with the Nice Matin newspaper reported from the scene that there was “a lot of blood and without doubt many injured”.
The Daily Mail (which has more details and a number of photos):
At Least 60 Feared Dead and Shots Fired as Lorry Rams Into Crowd Celebrating Bastille Day in Nice Leaving Bodies Strewn Across the Road in Suspected Terror Attack
A lorry ran down a large group of people in the southern French city of Nice during a suspected terrorist attack. At least 50 people are feared dead with more than 100 injured during the Bastille Day attack.
Eyewitnesses have reported that hostages have been taken in two hotels and a restaurant in the city.
Gunshots rang out in the streets, with gunmen targeting hotels and cafes in the port city as residents were warned to lock themselves in doors for their safety. Hostages have been taken in a hotel in the city. The RAID anti-terror squad has been deployed to the city.
Hundreds of people were watching fireworks along the promenade when the attack began.
It is believed the gunmen are holding hostages in the Meridien Hotel, the Hotel Negresco and the Buffalo Grill restaurant.
A lorry rammed into a large group of people who were celebrating Bastille Day before gunmen started firing.
A spokesman for the Alpes Maritime prefecture advised locals to ‘stay indoors’ as gunfire was heard, and a lorry was driven into a crowd on the Promenade des Anglais.
Eyewitnesses said there were ‘bodies everywhere’ with at least 100 people injured.
The truck driver is believed to have crashed his vehicle and jumped out and started shooting.
Police are also searching for an accomplice.
At this stage, police are describing the incident as ‘a major criminal attack’.
Sebastian Humbert, prefect for the Alpes — Martime area said: ‘A truck rammed into the crowd over a long distance, which explains this extremely heavy toll.’
He said the driver has been shot dead by police. They are currently hunting for a second attacker.
Truck Crashes Into Bastille Day Crowd in Nice, France
France’s national holiday turned ugly for revelers Thursday night in the southern city of Nice, as a truck reportedly crashed into a crowd of Bastille Day revelers and fears of terrorism spread.
Multiple videos posted on BreakingNews.com showed people fleeing in panic, though the crash itself wasn’t shown.
There also were reports of gunshots, though fireworks are often set off on Bastille Day, making such early witness accounts questionable.
Islamist terror groups, sometimes using native-French Muslims, have targeted France repeatedly in recent years and the use of vehicles and car bombs are among their known tactics.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility or mass carnage beyond what might happen in an ordinary traffic accident, but there are casualties lying on the ground, according to eyewitnesses.
Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.
Does anyone now think that Iran will not use the bomb?
yes, president Hussein.
Excuse me.
Why the (expletive omitted) else do you think he gave them the bomb except for them to use it?
Bastille inmates were set free in 1789. Only the French with big brains could do that.
Today all of France is Bastille , every city, every town, and every district. This time only French with big brains can achieve this feat.
You see muslims are frustrated and are justifies to kill their occupiers by trucks or any other means. West bank of Seine has occupied be French Crusaders.
Incomprehensible [material that I deprecate]!
LeMonde
7/14/2016
“In consultation with the EU, the UN, President Obama and Angela Merkel, I have decided to implement two policies. As this attack happened on Bastille Day it is clear that Muslims had nothing to do with this terrorism, rather it was the Catholic Church attempting to restore the monarchy.”
“So, 1) Christianity is now outlawed in France and 2) Given President Obama’s fight for gun control I now proclaim 2) Truck control – all trucks are now outlawed in France.”
“I will now take one question”
” Monsieur Hollande, what about Islam?”
“As President of France we now will redouble our Muslim immigration and we will be setting aside 10 billion Euros fro mosque building. I now end the press conference.”
I had fun writing that.
The cause is Bastille day.Great provocation.
” Monsieur Hollande, what about Islam?”
“Security staff, see that guy: arrest him for hate speech!”
It now appears there is no hostage situation. The death toll has risen to at least 75.
My heart goes out to all the relatives and friends of the deceased and injured in Nice and God bless those who died and those hospitalised with terrible injuries.
In UK papers yesterday we were posting that a Tornado could
Kill a terrorist on a bicycle, from a range of 20 miles away, with a brimstone missile. There in a nutshell you have it, one terrorist death at the cost of hundreds of thousands, in Nice 85 deaths and counting plus multiple casualties costing relatively
Small change.
So who is winning the “war” on terrorism economically and more importantly psychologically? Whilst I understand the grief of all the victims of this latest atrocity, the undoubtedly well meant ensuing vigils, with all the candles, rainbow flags, and renditions of “Imagine”, will just compound the impression of weakness we portray to the Muslim nations who finance these events (their description) and are sworn to destroy western civilisation. They will be singing in the streets and handing out sweets to children in celebration, no doubt in parts of France and Belgium too.
The press will already have its ducks in a row with the hackneyed message “This is nothing to do with Islam” and no doubt trying desperately to blame Israel simultaneously.
This is a war, infiltrators behind enemy lines as they see it are wreaking havoc, invited by the likes of Merkel and her acolytes virtually unopposed.
Imagine the WW11 scenario if Hitler could have engineered the situation where millions of young, fit, radicalised and supposedly desperate single men could swarm(remember when the oily Cameron creature had to apologise for using that word) across European borders, not by conquest but by invitation?
What is needed is a massive, coordinated, retaliatory air strike, yes there will be collateral damage too, that will live long in the thoughts of the psychopaths who hate the west so much and teach them that there ARE consequences for their actions. Perhaps such an action might cause their populace to rise up against them as undoubtedly a violated western nation’s citizenry soon will against their suppine, cowardly leaders too. Maybe Hollande (he of the 10k Euro per month barber’s bill) may rise to the occasion but I frankly doubt it very much indeed!
Some people think that it is disrespectful to show the bodies of the victims before their families are identified. Others think its best to just show whatever you have.
I am undecided about this. I think that good arguments could be made for both cases. The good thing is that every website still has the choice of deciding for itself what to publish.
On less regulated, un-edited corners of the internet, this can lead to bitter disputes.
Today on Twitter, the sinister Maajid Nawaz was criticized for tweeting such images.
No doubt, Nawaz approves of the terror in Nice, and posted those images hoping that his naive Infidel fans would see them, see the gore and blood, and have the fear of Allah instilled in their hearts.
They think that he is friendly to them, that he is peaceful. So when they come across such images, showing slaughtered Infidels, in tweets posted by @MaajidNawaz, “Allah came upon them from where they had not expected and He cast terror into their hearts.”, in accordance with Qur’an 59:2
His infidel followers don’t realize that he is subtly threatening them.
Here was his tweet:
https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/753706584640020480
A long exchange followed. A user named @HillyFoz decided to take issue with Nawaz posting this image, and they got into an argument.
It was mostly inconsequential, but Nawaz got hot under the collar when @HillyFoz used the .@ to “broadcast” the discussion to her public twitter feed. Nawaz wasn’t happy with that:
https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/753739186948149248
He got angry with @HillyFox, because doesn’t want to be seen publicly arguing for showing gory images of victims of Jihad terror. Not because some stance for free expression or whatever, but because people might notice how keen he is for Infidels to see such gory and frightening images.
I’m not frightened. I am angered.
Hey Vikram,
Do you still think Zuhdi Jasser is somehow any different from Nawaz? Or that any Muslim could possibly differ in essence from Nawaz?
Time to invite French Muslims to leave France, and escort them out with determined assistance. Absent that, things can only get worse.
France will have to escort out its commies first or else no one will be escorting out any French Muslims.
You can take that to the bank.
You are correct – they are allies just as the Democrats and the Muslims are in the US.
These events have become so commonplace now that the news cycle will turn to another subject within 48 hours. When’s the last you heard about escaped Orlando terrorist Noor? I’ve become desensitized from these rapid-paced events and have begun focusing on what I can do in my small space.
Aux armes, citoyens!
Mais les citoyens ont été désarmés.
I am not shocked. It would appear that islam does what islam does. Meantime, multiculturalists, socialists, greens, and idealists do what they do; all as reliable as mosquitoes or other insects.
I might add that those who are enriched by public debt rather than by actual productivity play their part as well to make it a perfect storm.
In the meantime, any welfare state which chooses open borders is tantamount to buying a ticket on the Titantic after it hit the iceberg.
We are surrounded by idiocy.
84 dead now. Many in France will be wishing the immigration policy of the past never happened. A short sighted policy leading to significant migration of muslims from old colonies. This terrorist is reportedly from Tunisia, so clearly a muslim. But I’ve yet to read a news report mentioning his religion.
Freedom of movement? surely that naive notion is dead now.
Yes, he could be a zen Buddhist from Tunis…
I’ve just been reading the readers’ comments on a Welt article about this. The Maas jackboot is working brilliantly: most comments hint at knowing what the real problem is, but don’t dare use words like islam or muslim. There is also a sense of uncertainty in many comments about what one is ‘allowed’ to say. Germans can no longer publicly speak about the problem.
News of such horrific attacks perpetrated by Muslim terrorists need to be at the top of the feed for at least a day or two. Mainstream media are now routinely starting to “forget” such news before even the total number of victims is known – GoV should do exactly the opposite.
The death toll is now 84 with probably more to come. JIM is almost absent from the dialogue and the T word is used sparingly. The propaganda wheel is beginning to spin up. Yet again Islam will be innocent blah, blah, blah, because it is a religion of peace and it cannot be held responsible for those who commit jihad violence whilst temporarily ‘non-muslim’ and supporting ‘non-Islamic’ organizations like ISIS (or while being temporarily insane).
How can we be protected if the government cannot/does not acknowledge that there is a problem…..
Those who remember the days of Mods and Rockers will remember that ALL Mods and ALL Rockers were deemed to be a risk, they were there to fight, nobody claimed them to be ‘moderate’ and ‘innocent’. If you walked the walk and talked the talk then you also took your share of the blame.
” Yet again Islam will be innocent blah, blah, blah, because it is a religion of peace and it cannot be held responsible for those who commit jihad violence…”
Meanwhile, [anti-Counterjihad invective redacted].
Hesperado, I’m calling you on this, your perennial obsession.
From now on, this is what I insist you do. You have two choices:
(1) If they post here at Gates of Vienna, name the person(s) from the Counterjihad who have fallen short of your standards, so we know who you’re complaining about.
(2) If those less-than-ideal Counterjihadists post somewhere else, go over to THOSE sites and berate them, not us. Go to Jihad Watch or MEF or FrontPage or wherever and tell them off. Don’t complain here, where your complaints are off-topic (and annoying). Leave us in peace.
Capiche?
After Bastille Day, I’m not taking any more [bovine excrement] from Counter-Jihad Softies like Baron and his wife.
“Is this a promise to leave our comments section, like forever?”, she said hopefully.
Yep, we be softies, which is why we’ve been willing to tolerate your repetitive compulsion to trample the good enough in what appears to be an obsession/need for perfection. Not in this world, son.
You spin your wheels in impotent rage as you’re booted from one comment section after another as people lose patience with your ill-will. It’s a shame, really, since there are truly nuggets of gold in the [bovine excrement] piles you leave hither and yon.
If you’re going…well then, vaya con Dios, Hesperado.
If you’re staying, keep a civil tongue in your head, boyo.
And if Bastille Day gave you the vapours, just wait a while. There will be much worse.
I sit here and write, 3 miles from Gaza, where just staying in my home in Sderot is active defiance against Jihad. I can see from here the huge influence GoV has in Europe if not the USA. Questions asked in Parliament in UK, and the whole Norwegian debacle all show the penetration of this site. I am not sure what your answer to my comment was, maybe that I, my wife and my children are some kind of sissy as well. My youngest son is now out of the IDF, but he has been in several firefights and has had petrol bombs thrown at him. We do our bit, do you? or are you a divide and conquer merchant?
We are all old and infirm, we will man the barricades if we have to, give our lives too, but we are past the time of life where we can build them. But we can encourage others, not prod them and poke them, that is what the enemy does.
The all important issue here is awareness, and when mystified, frightened people come looking for clues and answers, they will find GoV. GoV is not boot camp, it is the recruiting office; a hugely important part of the process of resistance.
“I’ve become desensitized”
Yep. Mass-casualty attacks of this kind have become so commonplace that their aftermath plays out according to an established routine:
The initial shock passes; the killer’s name is confirmed as Mohammad something; sappy cartoons are shared on social media; candles are lit; politicians dissemble; liberals wring hands; Muslims issue threats masquerading as expressions of communal solidarity… Welcome to the new normal.
“Welcome to the new normal.”
You left out the crucial factor in this dynamic. It’s metastasizing. “New normal” implies a static (albeit bad) situation, that eventually we can digest and proceed, as… normal (just a new, and bad, normal).
However, the only “normal” thing about this process is that Westerners, even [gratuitous jab redacted], don’t see that this is on an inexorable course toward our civilizational destruction — precisely because that’s the entelechy Muslims are following. They will not rest from their diverse strategy of jihads (stealth and violence) until we are destroyed. And as long as we don’t recognize that all Muslims are part of this, they will win.
“And as long as we don’t recognize that all Muslims are part of this, they will win.”
That’s right. I keep trying to tell people around me that all of the seemingly innocuous frustrations that are incurred, consciously or unconsciously, by the Ummah are meant to increase their sphere of influence and diminish ours.
There is a video of Newt Gingrich being interviewed on Fox News. His comments (solutions) on this reprehensible situation are gunpowder. I have it on my e-mail
and if you would like it, GoV, either go to Fox News or give me an e-mail addy I can send it to. By the way, I totally agree with his suggestions 150%.
Let me guess. Gingrich wants to boldly go after the Tiny Minority of Extremists — robustly revamped to the Slightly Larger Number of Extremists.
So do I.
Deport anyone of muslim descent who refuses to repudiate jihad and sharia.
But you can’t deport citizens. Even if you could, where would you send them? Perhaps we would be best served by making support of jihad/sharia (synonyms) a crime of high treason…which it is already, at least technically. We need to name it as such, criminalize it, and have them in their own prisons so they can’t infect the already dis-affected felons.
But our testosterone levels are dropping fast…
See China and Putin solutions.
The West may have no interest in jihad, but jihad is extremely interested in the West.
This is the main point that postmodernist secular materialists fail to understand because they literally cannot conceptualize how deeply religion permeates the Ummah in every aspect of life.
Welcome to the new normal. This is what you get when your government spends decades importing Third World filth and subsidizes it on the backs of honest, hard-working citizens.
Unsurprisingly, my leftist Facebook friends have made nary a peep about the slaughter in Nice.
I’d say this is a pretty solid indicator where their treasonous, Soros-programmed priorities lie.
And in an added twist to an already insane world, now we have to see the words “Nice terror attack” everywhere. I bet the unnamed, motiveless non-attackers really enjoy that phrase.
It would be nice if the West would adopt the phrase “No More Mr. Nice Guy” (and, of course, really mean it, by rounding up all Muslims and shipping them the Jahannam out).
Please repeat after me:
This has NOTHING to do with Islam.
I’m sure they will find another plausible explanation. Like the guy was depressed or some such.