A Port Elizabeth woman living on the outskirts of Nice in France has spoken about her anxiety for the safety of her child and in-laws who had been on the promenade when Thursday night's horror truck attack took place.
Mary Michaelides, who's been living in France for the past decade, said her daughter was with her grandparents for the annual Bastille Day celebrations when they heard about the attack, now widely labelled a terror attack.
She said her son who had a touch of heat exhaustion did not go with them.
Michaelides told Algoa FM News that she heard her husband calling his parents to check on them which she she initially found strange.
"I came downstairs and he said to me don't worry they are safe and then I saw the headlines on TV that there was an attack in Nice."
"I suddenly got panicked because I wanted to know where she is (my daughter). Fortunately they were a little further up on the promenade so they were safe and sound"
Michaelides said once she had established that her daughter and in-laws were safe she started becoming concerned for the safety of friends who had gone down to the promenade for the celebrations.
"We texted everyone and used Facebook. So far everyone is fine and safe," she said.
She recounted the story of one friend who managed to push his partner and her son out of the way as the truck came barrelling past while another friend took refuge in a bar and hid under a table with other people.
"There were rumours of a hostage situation which turned out to be not true," she said.
Michaelides said another set of friends and their children took refuge in an apartment of some strangers until early Friday morning when they returned home.
"It's just really hectic, you don't think it will happen in Nice but unfortunately it did," she said.
Michaelides said that the mood in Nice on Friday was sullen.
"Today I have heard that there are seven children, obviously there are adults as well, that are in hospital. There are calls for people to go and give blood, so at some point today I am going to go and donate blood.â€
"The mood is sullen the mood is one of shock, it's sort like it happened in Paris and in Nice we thought we were reasonably safe because this isn't the capital city, but then I think logically it's a big city too, so they are going to attack big cities," she added.
Michaelides said that the "truck attack" would have a negative effect on the country.
"The ramifications are going to be huge. My husband for example works for quite a famous hotel chain in Monaco and Nice. He told me this morning that when he looked at his Blackberry phone he already had cancellations for the summer," she said.
"Obviously for big hotel business they get big groups of people coming in that's where they get their money. If those cancellations start rolling in, the ramifications on the tourism industry will be huge. I think for all the people who live in Nice and who love Nice, our perspective has changed. But then you look at Paris and you see that after six months everyone is on guard and everyone is cautious and then life goes back to normal again."
(Image: French president Francois Hollande)
