Dead bodies at the scene of the attack in Nice. Photo: Twitter.

An eyewitness at the scene of the truck attack in the south of France on Thursday night described the carnage in an interview with The Algemeiner.

“We were coming back from a restaurant with a few friends just in front of the place of the attack,” the witness, who did not wish to be named, said. After seeing people running and understanding that something significant had taken place, he rushed to the scene of the attack with some family members.

“As soon as we reached the place we started to see bodies all over the place,” the eyewitness said. “Both my parents are doctors so we went out to help the injured people… the three of us stayed on the scene for an hour or so until the military arrived to the area and started to evacuate all the bodies.”

We “tried to console a little bit the people who were there,” he added, noting that people were standing by the corpses of their loved ones who had been killed in the attack.

“We lived in Israel during the second Intifada… so they [his parents] know a little bit about how to handle it… It is quite awful and you try to help and you think later.”

The eyewitness said his family now lives near the scene of the attack. His parents rushed home to bring any available medical equipment to the scene, however, he said, “it was very minimalistic.”

“I was not really thinking about safety issues,” he added, when asked if he feared for his life during the aftermath of the incident.

According to multiple media reports, over 77 people were killed in the attack and hundreds more may have been injured. The attacker plowed his large truck into a crowd of people watching Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city.

Local official Christian Estrosi told a French TV station that the attacker then descended from the truck and opened fire on the crowd. He also said that weapons and grenades were found inside the truck after he was shot dead by police.

According to Reuters, “Vehicle attacks have been used by isolated members of militant groups in recent years, notably in Israel, as well as in Europe, though never to such devastating effect.”