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‘Stop There’s a Girl under the Truck!’ Egyptian Witness on Nice Terror Attack

July 15, 2016
French police and forensic officers near the truck that ran into the crowd (Reuters: Eric Gaillard)

A 42-year-old Egyptian man vacationing in Nice described to French media how he came face to face with the driver of the truck that plowed through people celebrating Bastille Day. “I was waving to the driver, ‘Stop! There’s a girl under the truck’,” says Nader El Shafei, a former banker, to BFM-TV. “We thought he lost control,” continues Nader. “I saw he’s holding something like a cellphone. I thought he would call the ambulance…that it’s an accident…this is all what we thought,” explains Nader, as he stood in front of the truck that had just “smashed into a lot of people.” “[Then] I saw him taking out his gun, a pistol, and even though I was still naive to think maybe someone is attacking him from the other side, trying to defend himself, until he started to shoot the police. In that moment, the officers asked me and the people next to me to run because of the shooting,” says Nader. “I couldn’t run, I was just frozen.” According to NBC News, Nader now believes “the Middle East can happen anywhere”. “I’m used to all of these actions in the Middle…


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