PARIS — Former French President François Hollande told a special terrorism court on Monday that the man who drove a truck into a crowded beachfront in Nice on Bastille Day six years ago, killing 86 people, was a terrorist who had gone undetected by security services despite France being on high alert for extremist attacks following the Islamic State massacres in Paris.
Thousands of people had packed Nice’s boardwalk on the Mediterranean coast on July 14, 2016, to celebrate France’s national holiday. Shortly after the end of a fireworks display, the truck careered through the crowd for 1¼ miles like a snowplow, slamming into person after person. The final death toll was 86, while 450 others were injured.
The attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was killed by police afterward.
