Re. And plants needed to give my shop. A face. No one will forget. See what the power of points can do for your business. Learn more at chase. Com ink we are back and on a night when we understand a lot of americans are tuning in to this network and the news in general for news about domestic politics, this instead is what we are covering and lets back this up so we can explain what we are going to show to people here. This is hard to watch even though it doesnt show any of the carnage that followed. The new video we have just received right here, theres the truck moving slowly. It appears Police Motorcycles were catching up with it as if to say no vehicular traffic on
this road. People are watching fireworks. It then starts to accelerate and this is the grisly portion of this. You can see what even appear to be dismounted police running after it with the reflective stripe on their jackets, and then the horror. You see the confusion in the crowd as people start running the other way. But conceivably, its easy to watch this and assume tt police were on to this, at least a wayward driver was doing something wrong, going where he shouldnt have been in a truck of that size. We are then led to believe that he accelerated. You can almost see the back of the container in a zigzag pattern moving from side to side through the crowd as if to cause the most death and destruction. Grisly business, awful thing to watch. Thank goodness it doesnt show more than it does. And yes, there will be, already has been much worse video come out of there on social media. There will be, given how many cameras were in use there because of the fireworks, there will be much more that comes out later tonight. But a grisly act in nice, france tonight, where there is an enormous number being quoted of dead and injured. Lets just say the mayor of the city was likely correct when he said early on on social media there are dozens of dead in a very comparatively low tech and apparent terrorist attack using a lorry, a container truck with
separated cab that on a street that appears to have not had vehicular traffic, somehow found its way on to the seaside promenade that runs along the mediterranean. Again, bastille day, 14th of july, in effect the french Independence Day, fourth of july for them, where like the united states, people go to fireworks displays in the evening. But the world has just witnessed yet another terrorist attack. Acting in caution, the mayor of nice and the police there have asked people to clear the streets, to go home, especially the area where this happened, not to pass along rumors or even graphic video. They have been put under a localized state of emergency, Emergency Operations are being followed by French Police and we assume a good number of military who were on post there, have
been on post in france during the terrorism era. You see the graphic there, nice in the southeast corner of france on the mediterranean. Often the port or gateway city, including by air, to a lot of the more fabulous and famous resorts along the coastline. Some of the most exclusive and priceyest places on earth. A lot of those vacations begin and end in nice with a major airport hub there among the airports in france. But apparently tonight, a truck we have reason to believe it was driven by a single male individual. Police are saying in the euphemism they often use, the suspect, the driver was neutralized, i. E. , killed, although the search continues
for other people who may, may be involved. Of course, everyone is hoping there is no other attack planned or connected with this. Kevin is a witness who was there in the crowd and saw the truck plow into the crowd tonight. Kevin, first of all, where are you from . Sure. Its a tricky question because i lived in nashville up until the end of june and im moving to denver. Im kind of doing a celebratory six weeks around the world. I have been in nice for two nights now. This will be my third night. Im traveling out of the country on sunday. So set the scene for us starting with the atmosphere before this happened, then what you saw. Sure. So as you know, and said, its bastille day here so there has actually been a military procession throughout the avenue, just several hours prior
to the Fireworks Show which were at 10 00. And so we had gone to that, then gone down to the beach for the Fireworks Show. The Fireworks Show started at 10 00, ended around 10 20, and as the fireworks ended, people started trickling back up to that main avenue where thousands and thousands of people were just standing there walking around, mingling with friends and family, and i ended up right there approximately one block away from where all of this happened, and i looked up from my phone to the left and saw what i can only describe as just a tsunami wave of human beings running in complete terror and panic in my direction. So my natural instinct was to just take off and start sprinting in that direction. Im a pretty nimble sprinter so i was catching up to people in front of me who didnt know that anything was happening and we were all just screaming at them run, get out of here, run, and
you know, i was waiting to catch my breath, restaurants were closing their shutters, not letting people in, locking themselves in because they were equally panicked. My air bnb, which was two and a half blocks from where this has all taken place was on the other side of the attack so we had to do a sort of semicircular route to get back here. Once we got here, nobody in the air bnb had any idea that anything was happening. Everyone said oh, it was probably nothing, just a car accident, people freaked out because of all thats going on in france right now. Then as the news started trickling in and everything has sort of begun to hit home for me. I really cant believe it. We were getting ready to go on the air, 6 00 eastern, with an hour of political coverage because of whats been the dominant political story here at home in the states, and i remember, i said to someone lets hope and pray that this
was merely the brake failure on a truck or maybe its wrong, as first reports often are, but it certainly looks from this new video that we have been narrating especially since you have been talking, if you look very closely, you can trace the rear of the white container, the back of this truck, it doesnt go in a straight line. Not only is it obvious that right here it picks up speed, it takes this gruesome turn and then you see the crowd behavior that you were just talking about, people who had been milling one moment and then react the next by running every which way. Yeah. Im telling you, im literally looking at the video right now for the first time. The faces that i was seeing were the people that were literally right there. Because i knew, my instinct told me this is not right. Something very, very bad is happening. Katy tur, who is someone i have
known my whole life, i went to high school with, i called her and say somethings going on in nice, france, i need you to figure out what it is. And she, you know, now thats why we are here talking where we are. I literally cant believe that that happened right next to where i was. Theres potentially reports of a hostage situation. I dont know if thats unfounded but thats at the Meridien Hotel which is literally right in front of where i was standing when we took off sprinting. So all of this is within a threeblock radius of not only where i am right now but where i have been all day. The hostage reports are apparently, we are hoping they remain unfounded. Obviously, if you are on a sixweek tour, then you did so as an american mindful of the world around you and which nations had an elevated risk. You are also in what can be
called the resort coastline, the mediterranean resort coastline of france, where you are probably cognizant of how much security there is compared to the u. S. , but terrorism is not top of mind during a night of fireworks. Right. Well, whats funny is that that very much weighed into my travel plans on this trip. Actually, early on my plan was to go to turkey for two of those six weeks and that plan got k kiboshed as a result of all thats going on there recently. In my mind during this trip i was actually just in portugal for the euro cup finals, then came here from there and while i was there, i was thinking okay, the euro cup which was held in france just ended, if there were to have been any terror attacks it likely would have been during that period given the large crowds that were developing during that period of time, also ramadan just ended and i know
isis had put out had told their followers to go out and wreak havoc during the month of ramadan. In my mind i was thinking okay, not only has ramadan ended but the euro cup has ended and furthermore, like i said, there was this Police Demonstration all day on that exact avenue and as that demonstration got out, there were American Military personnel there, French Military personnel there, tanks, people with assault rifles. I actually felt pretty darned safe standing there knowing that i was surrounded by Police Officers. Actually, the moment that i took off to start sprinting, one of the first people i saw was a Police Officer with a gun in his hand heading the opposite direction towards what was happening. So i do play things safe as a general rule and i actually thought this area of the world would be safe right now. Ill tell you, im pretty excited to be getting out of here soon. An american traveling
overseas who was tonight in nice for the july 14th bastille day fireworks, kevin, thank you very much for getting in touch with us and its good to have someone from home kind of narrate even though its an awful experience you have been through, but to hear it through your eyes. Thank you very much, especially for your presence of mind. Heres a story that combines what we were talking about earlier, this intersection of domestic politics that we have been covering all day and the story of terrorism that has come at us tonight from nice, france. Quoting from the twitter account of donald trump, in light of the horrible attack in nice, france, i have postponed tomorrows News Conference concerning my Vice President ial announcement. That from donald trump tonight. It was to be at 11 00 a. M. Here in new york. This is this was issued at
7 09 p. M. Another american we can turn to to talk about the situation in nice is our own correspondent, Janet Shamlian who is nine miles away from where this attack took place. Presuming you have been watching and listening to local media, what can you tell us . Reporter well, i first want to let you know about this area. The promenade des anglais where this attack happened, i spent many bastille Day Celebrations down there on the promenade des anglais with the fireworks. I would liken it to Michigan Avenue in chicago on the fourth of july, where people come to the lakeshore by the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, where you cannot get a hotel room, where you start your day looking for parking at
noon for a 10 00 Fireworks Show because of the sheer crowds this event draws. And lets be certain about this. A lot of people who are down there this time of year are americans. It is a big draw. And it attracts people from all over but theres a big american presence there. And it is along that promenade des anglais, its a party. I would call it a Michigan Avenue in chicago type setting for the fireworks and the celebration and there are musicians and there are families with Young Children and in fact, our own family just made a conscious decision not to go down there. We are in an area, the foothills, nine miles from nice, but if you got in a car, it
would take me 40 minutes just because of the roads as they are here. But it is, for anybody who knows this area, it would seem a likely target, i have to say that, because of the sheer mass of people that it draws to the waterfront. Janet, this last piece of video we have been narrating is tragic to watch, in part because it certainly appears, we will learn much more in the days ahead, it certainly appears that perhaps one motorcycle cop and other dismounted police running as fast as they can suspect something and are on to something and are trying to stop this truck as it plows into the crowd. Reporter well, whats interesting is how it got there in the first place. That it was there certainly raised the alarm. They close those streets early and often on the promenade des
anglais and they would start shutting them down midafternoon. How did it get through any barricades and certainly, when it went through barricades or through a cordoned area, that would raise the alarm of the police. I will say that having been here now for a bit on vacation with my family, the area is on alert. We had the euro cup finals in paris a couple days ago, portugal versus france. A lot of people stayed away from that thinking that it was a possible target. And while there are celebrations in paris, this spot in nice along the waterfront is ripe for the picking. I hate to put it that way. But it is just an attraction for families and tens of thousands of people on this night every year. Janet, here you are, a u. S. Based television correspondent
that means in the modern era almost by definition, you have covered your share of sad aftermaths of terrible events under the label of terrorism. I know you traveled a ton back and forth to france in your life. What has been the big change you have noticed say post bataclan or just in the last two to three years from landing, taking off, getting around, going through airports and the like . Reporter let me tell you about this location again and say that it is where i was scheduled to fly out of at 6 30 this morning france time which is 12 30 eastern new york time from the nice airport. The promenade des anglais where this happened is just a few miles from the airport. The nice airport in fast couple years has gone from being a very
kind of casual summer spot to a fortified airport like many other. And it looks a lot like paris now which for anyone who has traveled through paris knows how stringent the security is and how often you see police with automatic weapons slung across their shoulder. Nice has become that way. It looks more like london and paris and having come to this region for many years because miof my family ties to the south of france, its a different world in this part of the country. Your initial point served to kind of warn us that when we do learn more, we have got these wild estimates of as we have put at the bottom of the screen, 60 to 70 people dead and we are
hoping and praying this is kind of fog of war confusion and a greatly inflated number, and the truth is far less than that. But your fear would be that any number, this is so popular with americans, any number would include, theres a good possibility, the good fear of including americans in that number. Reporter americans and families and children. This has been considered an event. You come here and theyre selling beach balls on the street for kids who are going to go into the mediterranean the next day. Its a big event and there are tens of thousands of people, but its very much family from all walks of life and all nationalities. On the plane coming in here, i would say there were more English Speakers than french speakers which gives you an idea of the people who are traveling here this time of year. As you have been talking, we have seen what looks like a vine video on a loop of the truck. Another view, another vantage point, what appears to be the view from maybe the outdoor lobby of a hotel at ground level. You see the truck at a high rate of speed going from the right of the frame to the left and again, matching your description, almost everyone you can identify in the picture is in tee shirts, polo shirts, shorts. They are on vacation where they have family and children with them. Its just a horrible turn of events, a horrible scene there. Janet shamlian is obviously an american based nbc news correspondent who happens to be by her own estimate about nine miles outside of where this attack took place. Janet, what will happen now to
people wanting to move around, head to the airport . We just had the previous american guest say that frankly, he was very glad he had travel plans out of there on sunday. Reporter and im sure that i wont be traveling with my daughters now on a 6 30 flight out of nice. As i stay here to report this for nbc news. But i imagine even they may be delayed because it seems to me that the airport would go on lockdown out of security concerns. We are six hours ahead of eastern time so there would be no activity there at this time of day. But this is not just a holiday today. This is a weekend in france. You cant get a hotel right now on the promenade des anglais and
many of them in this area specifically where this attack took place are the types of hotels that cater to an american crowd, meaning they are the hilton chain, marriott chain, westin chain. So we can only hope that as you indicated that the death toll is much less than estimated so far. But this is the biggest weekend in nice that they have all year. Bar none. I will be making my way down there. You know, these are small little towns that kind of dot nice. As you move to the west, antibes is the next major big town, after that is cannes and after that, st. Tropez. All of those people in all of these communities generally travel through the nice airport to and from along the auto route there. I cant imagine anything but
that things are going to be on lockdown. That hideous term we have all come to know, the area is full of soft targets, crowds of folks trying to enjoy summer vacation. Janet shamlian reporting live for us from nearby the location of this tragedy tonight in france. Cal perry in our newsroom monitoring Everything Else coming in. Cal . According to the what would be the equivalent of the mayor of nice, im just going to quote from his twitter page, this is the worst tragedy in the history of nice because more than 70 victims have already died. We are ready to say at this point at least 70 people have died in what we know is a deliberate attack. The french government not using the word terror yet. There will be a statement coming up. The other thing thats circulating on french tv, and we have heard this from some of our witnesses on the ground, theres a lot of Bad Information out
there. There is no ho