Nice attack: 18 people still fighting for life after Bastille Day truck massacre

Flowers left in Nice after the massacre on Thursday night
AP
Robin de Peyer17 July 2016

Nearly 20 people injured during the Bastille Day lorry attack in Nice are still fighting for their lives in hospital.

Scores are still continuing to receive medical treatment after the massacre which killed 84 people, French health minister Marisol Touraine said.

Crying relatives hugged each other outside the Hopital Pasteur on Sunday as they learned news of their loved ones.

A medical student who volunteered to help at the hospital said he had been one of many who helped with the bodies.

The 21-year-old, who did not wish to give his name, told the Press Association: "It was all about helping identify and move bodies, dead bodies."

Seven people remain in custody following the attack, which came as people celebrated France's national day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on Thursday.

Nice Terror Attack Tributes Around The World - In Pictures

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The promenade reopened around 36 hours later, as holidaymakers walked along the waterside stretch, which is lined with hotels and restaurants, while police officers kept watch.

Flowers, cards and messages of solidarity marked the spots where bodies had been left strewn on the road in the aftermath of the massacre.

Candles burned late into the night on Saturday as crowds gathered once again in memory of those killed and injured.

The Islamic State group has claimed lorry driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was "a soldier" acting on its behalf by committing the murders.

The IS claim of responsibility came after the French authorities said Bouhlel had no known links with terrorists, unlike those behind previous attacks in Paris.

And a former neighbour said the 31-year-old had never spoken about extremism.

Bouhlel drove a 19-tonne hired lorry at speed into masses of people before he was shot dead by police.

Speaking outside the high-rise block of flats on Boulevard Henri Sappia, where the suspect had previously lived with his family, Samiq, 19, who did not want to give his surname, said: "I never heard him speak about extremism, I cannot believe that he was a member of Islamic State."

He said people thought Bouhlel had psychological problems.

"He was a little bit crazy," he said, but he added that he was shocked by what had happened.

The apartment on Route de Turin where Bouhlel was believed to be living before the attack was raided by police, and a view through the keyhole showed items including what appeared to be boxes of medication and a strip of tablets.

The driver's father has said that Bouhlel had received psychiatric treatment in the past.

A neighbour and her young daughter said he lived a reclusive life, failing to respond when they said hello.

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who announced 12,000 extra police reserves are being called up alongside the 120,000 police and soldiers already in place across the country, said Bouhlel appeared to have been radicalised only recently.

According to reports, his ex-wife was also being questioned.

Devastating loss: A man stands amid a sea of tributes at the scene of the attack in Nice
AP

The woman, who was estranged from him and had been subject to his domestic violence, was taken into custody for her own protection, French media reported.

Many people are still awaiting news of their loved ones either injured in hospital or missing since the attack.

One man lost six members of his family, French media reported.

Unimaginable grief: Loved ones grieve on the road at the scene of the attack. Christophe Lyon is not pictured
AP

An eyewitness said she saw people hanging on to the lorry in a desperate bid to stop the killing spree.

Tita Siren, from Finland, was on holiday in the city and witnessed events from a hotel terrace.

She said: "I recognised that one or two men were trying to open the door of the driver. They were hanging on the door so trying to save other people's lives."

She added: "The whole width of the truck was full of people in front of it and it just drove over the people and they fell, like the driver was bowling."

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