Qualla: 2016 Nice Truck Attack

2016 Nice Truck Attack: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lspigon, CC BY 4.0. The fireworks over the Baie des Anges had just ended. It was the evening of July 14, 2016 -- Bastille Day, France's most important national holiday -- and tens of thousands of people packed the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Families with children, tourists, locals who had come for the celebration. At approximately 10:30 p.m., a 19-tonne cargo truck accelerated into the crowd and drove for nearly two kilometers along the seafront promenade, killing 86 people and injuring more than 450. Among the dead were citizens of France, Tunisia, Algeria, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Russia, and several other countries.

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Image: Lspigon | CC BY 4.0

2016 Nice Truck Attack: A City's Night of Horror

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mathsci, CC BY-SA 4.0. The attack lasted roughly four minutes. The truck drove along the Promenade des Anglais, swerving to hit as many people as possible. The attacker was eventually stopped and killed by police gunfire. In the confusion that followed, social media became a lifeline: residents used th...

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Image: Mathsci | CC BY-SA 4.0

2016 Nice Truck Attack: A Nation Already Wounded

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GrandCelinien, CC BY-SA 3.0. France was still reeling from the November 2015 Paris attacks when Nice was struck. President Francois Hollande, who had been in Avignon, returned to Paris for an emergency meeting and addressed the nation before dawn. He extended the state of emergency, already in effect since t...

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Image: GrandCelinien | CC BY-SA 3.0

2016 Nice Truck Attack: Solidarity in Grief

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Besserwissern, CC BY-SA 4.0. The first Islamic funeral for victims of the attack took place on July 19 at the Ar-Rahma mosque, the oldest in Nice. The imam, Otmane Aissaoui, spoke over the bodies of a 23-year-old Tunisian woman, her 4-year-old child, and a young man. 'The sole frontier for which one should h...

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Image: Besserwissern | CC BY-SA 4.0

2016 Nice Truck Attack: The Promenade Remembers

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ali Zifan, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the weeks and months that followed, memorials appeared along the Promenade des Anglais -- flowers, photographs, messages in dozens of languages. The attack prompted a fierce debate about whether CCTV footage of the event should be preserved or destroyed; Nice's local governmen...

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Image: Ali Zifan | CC BY-SA 4.0