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The driver of a heavy truck plowed into a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice late on Thursday, officials said.
The attack, which killed at least 80 people and injured scores of others, happened on the Promenade des Anglais, the main strip running along its beach. Two casinos located along the Promenade have been affected by this attack.
Many of those on the street sought refuge in nearby casinos. The truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of two kilometres, passing near Nice’s Palais de la Mediterranee and two blocks from The Ruhl Casino, located in the Le Meridien Hotel.
“Around 10:30, I saw policemen running in the direction I was heading to,” Mikael Bentura, 25, a Tunisian salesman based in Nice relayed to the New York Times.
“I saw them starting to point their guns at a white truck, which was coming toward us but quite far away, then I started running in the opposite direction with my friends,” he said.
“Thirty seconds later I heard gunshots, and I was really scared. We arrived at the Meridien, another hotel, and we went to hide in a casino where they were closing the doors and putting people in. I heard a few more gunshots and then nothing.”
Staff confirmed the Ruhl Casino would be closed during the morning hours Friday.
A shootout occurred three blocks from the Palais de la Mediterrane in front of the Le Negresco Hotel, popular with Americans. The truck was ultimately stopped at this location.
“France has been struck on the day of her national holiday – the 14th of July, Bastille Day – the symbol of liberty, because human rights are denied by fanatics and France is clearly their target,” President François Hollande of France said shortly after 3 am local time Friday.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
