AFP photographer describes heartbreak after attack

Forensics officers look for evidence near the truck after it drove into a crowd watching a fireworks display on the Promenade des Anglais seafront in Nice. (Photo: AFP)

AFP’s Valery Hache was one of the first photographers to arrive on the scene of the attack in Nice on Thursday night and he captured striking images of the chaos and the truck, its windscreen riddled with bullet holes.

“The dread began to fill me when I heard the sirens. Too loud. Then I saw the columns of fire trucks. Too many. Something wasn’t right.”

It was the evening of July 14th, France’s national day, and I had just spent several relaxing hours shooting the annual fireworks display. Four days earlier, when the month-long Euro football championship ended, all of us journalists breathed a collective sigh of relief.

So on the evening of Bastille Day, I had a pleasant, relaxing time shooting the annual fireworks in Nice. Everyone loves a fireworks display. The seaside promenade was jam-packed with people.

I shot plenty of photos but, knowing that the focus is usually always on Paris, sent just one to the desk — the fireworks with bolts of lightning behind them. Then I went home.

Ten minutes after walking through the door of my apartment in the hills overlooking the city, I heard the sirens and saw the fire truck columns. I began to sense that something wasn’t right, grabbed my cameras and headed back to my scooter. A journalist friend called, saying “something serious has happened on the Promenade des Anglais”, the city’s main thoroughfare.

I drove there as fast as I could, then left the scooter and continued on foot. I walked into a scene of pure panic. Hundreds of people were running in all different directions.

I walked, trying to get my bearings, to figure out what was going on. The police were just starting to cordon off the place. I saw a truck, its windshield riddled with bullets, surrounded by the police. I stopped and got some shots.

I stayed for only about 10 seconds before moving on. By the time I sent my photos, 15 minutes later, the whole place was sealed off and you couldn’t get anywhere.

People were still in panic. Some were hugging. Some were sobbing, walking slowly away. The lucky ones who escaped.