The tragic timing of the Nice terror attack

The death toll from last night’s Nice terror attack has now topped more than 80. It also looks as though some 50 people were injured when a truck driven by a 31-year-old man, who was known to police but not to the intelligence services, tore through the crowd of people celebrating Bastille day. Isabel Hardman, who was in Nice at the time of the attack, has reported on the aftermath. In the hours following the devastating incident, the analysis has also started. What seems particularly tragic about this horrendous incident is that it strikes a France which was on the mend after last year’s attacks in Paris in November, which left 130 people dead, and in January, when the offices of Charlie Hebdo – a French satirical magazine – were targeted. France has just successfully hosted the Euro football championships and was starting to hope that the process of healing was underway.