>> oh, yeah. where else? >> it was bare bones, nerve wracking. >> i can't believe it's been 20 years. msnbc was such a cutting edge place whether he it went on the air. >> favorite msnbc memory? >> she does not have a short memory. i have a short memory. >> thank you so much, reverend. memory. i have a short memory. >> thank you, reverend. >> thank you. in one of the world's most beautiful vacation spots on one of the most popular holidays. >> bastille day is their fourth of july. >> terror. >> i grabbed my fiancee yaiance started running. >> we were sitting ducks. >> france is attacked again. >> thousands of people packed like sardines. mowed down by someone driving a truck. >> investigators right now are going through this guy's background to see if there are any connections. was anyone directing him on this

target on this day. >> among the victims, an american father and son. >> still hasn't really set in. very small world. you don't think it will happen to somebody you know. >> so many lives lost. >> the world is getting dangerous, my friend. >> i'm alive. people that were standing next to me are not. so i think i'm okay. >> is this the new normal? >> these attacks are really changing the way that we think. >> people are absolutely adapting the way they live their lives. >> these things happen wherever you go. >> you can't live in fear. life goes on. >> the bastille day attack. a dateline special. good evening. welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt in nice. a celebration. a crowd and chaos as a ghostly white truck brought a terror of death for a mile on the beach

front boulevard. at least 84 people are dead. including 10 children and teenagers. more than 200 people wounded with dozens on life support or in critical condition. the driver, a tunisian living legally in france had a criminal record, but so far no links to terrorist groups. dennis murphy has the latest. >> reporter: it was the french version of the fourth of july. bastille day. the great summer holiday when families sung and eat and drink and gather for the fireworks show. as thousands did along the beach in nice. evening of rolling thunder on the mediterranean. american businessman eric dratell. >> it was a fantastic atmosphere. americans can relate it to the fourth of july. >> >> reporter: the fireworks at 10:30 were only the beginning. the crowd was starting to disbur disburse. moms and dads.

kids in strollers. >> we were heading to our apartment. we stopped to enjoy a band playing on the promenade. >> reporter: about the same time, a man on the side street had taken the wheel of the white refrigerated truck now down the promenade de anglais. the boulevard on the beach. street traffic had been blocked off for the celebrations. that truck shouldn't have been there. >> and we turned to hear lots of commotion and shrieking and shouting. >> reporter: the driver found the sidewalk and victims to mow down. pedestrians assumed it was an awful accident. >> we were standing there in shock. we didn't know what happened. the truck blew through the pedestrian walkway. >> reporter: the driver kept moving. plowing into the crowd that could not get out of his way. terror had arrived in a french resort city not in a hijacked

plane, car load of armed men, but in the form of an every day truck rented just for this purpose. bodies being tossed and scattered, dragged under the wheels. adu adults, teens, children, all the same as targets. >> i have seen one guy actually running and sobbing and crying. screaming and shouting for cover. it was horrendous. >> reporter: video from a balcony overlooking the promenade, shows the truck now a murder weapon, barrelling down the boulevard. leaving blood and mayhem. the driver kept going. the destruction was more than a mile in length. this eyewitness. >> i suddenly saw the truck coming in front of me in the street. and just stopped two meters in front of me. >> reporter: everyone seemed to realize they were under siege.

it was happening again. a major terrorist attack in france. fracturing again an already fragile nation. >> i was frozen in place. i took out my cell phone and i turn it on video. >> reporter: his cell phone video captured the beginning of the end as brave police surrounded the truck and exchanged gunfire with the driver. >> maybe 20, maybe 30. it was all very close to each other. very fast. pop, pop, pop. >> reporter: she and her daughter and baby visiting from california were steps away. >> i was terrified. i put my hand on the baby's mouth so she won't scream. >> reporter: as the shots kept coming, another tourist from florida did not know what was happening, but had to get away

fast. >> i grabbed my fiance. we started running. we are not locals. we did not know where we were going. everyone was running away from something. we were just turning down alleys and looking for somewhere that may be safe. >> reporter: witnesses say parents from desperately trying to protect their children. some even throwing them to safety. eric and his wife were on the beach watching people fall around and on them. >> and we were running to this area, which is very short distance from where we were seated, people started to literally diving off the promenade on to the beach. including the car with a metal roof on top of the restaurant. one guy dove on that and rolled over and landed on my wife. >> reporter: with the shooting stopped, the vehicle idled. the driver slumped dead in the driver's seat. the nice looked like a war zone.

the wounded. the dead. the dying. >> you could see bodies and blood everywhere. the bodies were covered. i thought they were in sheets. it was restaurant table cloths. it was horrifying sight. >> reporter: a count of 84 dead. another 200 plus have been injured. among those killed. a father and son from the austin, texas area. sean copeland and his 11-year-old boy brodie. a facebook post. nobody deserves this kind of fate. brodie's little league coach. >> he was the little guy on the team. he was our second baseman. i called him a firecracker. >> reporter: elsewhere on social media, people asked for help to find the unaccounted for. including a u.c. berkeley student. at least three others from the school were injured. by daylight, the murderous truck

driver was identified. 31-year-old mohamed lahouaiej. he lived in the area with an an stranged wife. >> he rented the truck three days ago. he picked it up yesterday. just a few hours before he got behind the steering wheel and come up the street. >> reporter: in the season of international rampages from orlando to istanbul to dallas, it was the french president's turn again at the microphone in the middle of the night. francois hollande addressed the nation and the world. >> i can assure you we will always be stronger than the lunatics trying to attack us. >> reporter: today, president obama echoed these thoughts. >> we cannot give in to fear. we cannot let us be divided by

religion. >> reporter: and the candidates weighed in. hillary clinton called for greater intelligence gathering. donald trump declared war on isis. while all eyes seem to be on france, out of the blue is another headline about global turmoil. reports of an attempted coup of turkey. beginning with the glorious fireworks show that spun into an atrocity. today, a crime scene more than a mile long is blocked off as investigators began what investigators do. the personal items left behind. maybe by the dead. perhaps by the fleeing crowd speak volumes. so far, no extremist groups have taken responsibility for the attack. and while it is early in the investigation, the driver appears to have acted alone. >> this is something that was planned out.

something that was premeditated. >> reporter: adam coleman says it is easy for a lone wolf to slip under the radar. >> this is someone who is not someone who would come up on radar of investigators. >> reporter: today, authorities were poring through debris and looking for clues as to how and why this terrorism happened. retired fbi special agent tim clemente says the next steps are clear. >> the investigators in nice are going through the guy's background to see if there are connections to see in anybody directed this. >> reporter: and the french government this morning ex-tended the state of emergency status by another three months. security was beefed up at all major events, but some have been canceled. the upcoming nice jazz festival and rihanna concert gone. for all of that, the tour de france, the third largest sporting event attracts

thousands of spectators. it went on along as planned along the southern france route with added precautions according to tour officials. for generations of dreamers and romantics, the riviera has been a sun-kissed place, but also a state of mind. last night, the ugliness of the world we all share now paid a murderous call. >> when we come back, witnesses to terror. how they survived. what they saw. what they will never forget. "dateline" will be right back. which you are you? be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization.

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♪ in an attack like this one, the difference between being a victim or a survivor is a matter of inches, seconds, and luck. harry smith now here in nice with the stories of those who witnessed last night's horror and were lucky enough to survive. >> reporter: the south of france has been europe's playground for decades. and bastille day, a sort of fourth of july meets mardi gras. the hannah family of south carolina was outside watching the fireworks. daughter nadine was spellbound. >> we saw red, white and blue and nadine was telling me, they

are celebrating our fourth of july and i said no, their flag is red, white and blue, as well. >> reporter: a small business owner vacationing from new york took these pictures, a couple dancing. as perfect a night as you can imagine. >> i went out to the promenade to just enjoy nice to actually enjoy its beautiful boardwalk and ended up staying for the fireworks. the mood was so personal and just wonderful, lighthearted. >> joyous. >> joyous, yeah, yeah. >> reporter: when did you know something was wrong? >> you know the difference between something being perfect, delightful and fantastic to complete disaster in quick seconds. i just heard something and i turned over. i saw the truck and as i'm looking at the truck i heard screams and gunshots. >> reporter: carnage, gun fire, chaos, a festival turned in to a test for survival. jack owns the bistro. it was packed last night.

>> when did you know something was wrong? >> when people start to show up, people start to leave the table. it was a riot. the most dangerous part was the riot. the second part, people were working on each other, tried to go inside and basically, sorry, it's an event. people tried to go inside, but sorry, it's a dead end. >> reporter: a truck, a lorry heading up the promenade des anglais with a demon behind the wheel. >> the guy was chasing people. like inside of a video game. >> reporter: before the restaurant business, jack was a tv sound man in beirut. in the bad old days. >> this is worse picture i ever saw. i saw that lorry, physically driving over children, women,

and that lorry just drive. >> these are pictures jack took with his phone. we blurred them. he walked and walked. on the ground people damaged beyond repair. one person said the bodies didn't look real. they looked like mannequins. what does it mean to live in france now. seven attacks in a year and a half. >> the world is getting dangerous, my friend. because listen, it's happening in america, today here it is proof you don't need weapons to kill people. they use a lorry to make mass destruction, i don't think you are feeling secure anywhere in the world, look at belgium, turkey, america, everywhere in the world. it's the same. >> reporter: the hannah family was saved by fate.

they headed to a restaurant less than a minute before the truck got to their spot. you came this close to terror. what does it make you think? >> it's hard to get away from this and we are very lucky that nothing happened to us. things can happen in a split second, you would be done. we were really, really lucky and god was really good to us. we are grateful to be still here. >> reporter: inga is struggling to understand just what happened. it is not even 24 hours later, and to have witnessed something as horrible as this, is there a way to understand it? >> no. i don't think so. this is not part of the human experience, or shouldn't be. >> reporter: how are you doing to have seen what you saw last night? >> i'm okay. i'm alive. i'm definitely grateful because

where i was standing and people standing next to me are not. so i think i'm okay. [ sirens ] >> every survivor of a terror attack has his or her own story of being an eyewitness to a who arer, but few have the perspective of a survivor you are about to meet as he gives us an inside view of what was happening as doctors fought to save every life. >> reporter: all kevin wanted to do this summer is unwind. a seasoned traveller, the 32-year-old native of los angeles figured he could couch surf across much of europe while visiting old friends. last week portugal, last night it was nice. >> i saw this tidal wave of people, complete chaos, commotion,

shrieks like i never heard before and i took off as quickly as i could. >> reporter: only running until his lungs burned did kevin learn the human stampede was caused by a terrorist truck driver. have you come to the point, it could have been me? >> absolutely. i don't know if i believed in survivor remorse until today. >> reporter: when kevin motamedi learned ten children and teenagers were killed in the attack and dozens more hospitalized he put his holiday on hold and see if he could help. you see he is a doctor, a newly minted facial trauma surgeon. >> i realized, all right, i need to offer my services. i ended up first going to the children's hospital. >> reporter: as it turned out, the hospital didn't need his help but invited him in to see what they were up against. >> they had received 15 patients throughout the course of the night. two of them unfortunately died overnight. three are in critical condition. one of them remains unclaimed.

meaning his parents are either dead or still in the hospital and the remainder just had either minor cuts or bruises or bad psychological damage. >> reporter: what was your sense of how the staff was doing, how they were handling this? >> they seemed poised and composed. everybody seemed a little sleep deprived. there were some family members waiting in the lobby who looked hysterical but that is to be expected. >> reporter: in a few days he will be leaving france, moving to his next stop but he says he leaves fearing in today's world, no place is ever truly safe. >> i spoke with my parents about that earlier. they said you need to come back to the u.s. and i said the u.s. is no safer than anywhere else. >> i was in dallas a week ago. >> there you go. >> reporter: it sounds like you have embraced what everyone calls a new normal, the expectation that these things can happen wherever you go. >> i never expected it to be that close. i felt had it been closer i wouldn't be sitting here right

now, but life goes on. you can't live in fear. >> what was behind this latest attack in france? what do we know about the man behind the wheel of the truck when we return.

the driver was known to be a loner. the question now is was he a so-called lone wolf, an angry man with a grudge, or was he operating as part of a larger terrorist organization? here's josh mankiewicz with the latest on the investigation. >> reporter: tonight, french

investigators are examining data from the phone and computer of mohamed bouhlel, a 31-year-old delivery driver and small-time criminal, who was born in tunisia, and then became first a french resident, then yesterday a mass murderer. police identified him from the i.d. card he left in the truck. this morning, they raided his modest apartment in a working-class suburb of nice, trying to learn more about a man who apparently never made it on to the french anti-terrorism radar. >> translator: he was totally unknown to the intelligence services both internationally and locally. >> reporter: he had no terrorist history but had a criminal rap sheet that included theft, vandalism and assault on another driver in a road rage incident. he was married, the father of three children, and he was also separated from his wife in a way that's been described as bitter.

investigators are looking at all of that. >> they will be going through every aspect of his digital life online, his phone, his computers, anything he had that might give them information. >> reporter: tim clemente is now retired from the fbi after spending much of his career in counterterrorism. >> who did he meet with? where did he go? >> reporter: what phone calls did he make? >> absolutely. and thankfully technology will give us some answers to that. they will be able to recreate some of his activities but not. >> reporter: it won't tell you what was going on in his mind? >> we'll never know that. >> reporter: his neighbors describe him as frightening, depressed, unstable and isolated, but not a radical extremist. >> all i know is this man has nothing to do with islamists, al-qaeda or the islamic state. >> reporter: despite that many terrorism experts believe he fits the profile of the modern, self-radicalized islamic

terrorist. terrorism expert brian jenkins. >> a lot of these young men, street thugs, petty criminals become radicalized, some in prison, some from charismatic people on, in the neighborhood. clearly the ideology is a component of their beliefs. the most common attribute we see is personal crisis. >> reporter: like a troubled marriage. add to that a truck, a few weapons and the perfect soft target. you don't need much money. >> you are looking at low rent terrorism. what does it take to rent a truck, he put a credit card down and now he doesn't have to pay the bill. almost zero up front cost. >> reporter: he had only one weapon, assault rifle and handgun in his trucks were fakes. the grenade he carried was disabled. he had no other explosives. his wife was taken in to custody

and questioned by investigators, who hope to learn more about her husband. >> she may have known associates he was dealing with, those are directions you want to go. i don't care if he says he was hanging out at the bar with this guy on thursday night. that is a person that needs to be spoken with and interviewed because you never know what the recruitment efforts or the support structure might be. it could be anybody. >> reporter: isis? al-qaeda? clemente says if that is what it is any link with an outside group could be difficult to prove. >> did somebody provide him with weapons, financial support? was anyone directing him at that target on this day. >> reporter: or was this all his idea? >> that's the thing. we may never find answers to this. communications could have been done in person and therefore since he is not followed or surveilled in any way we may not know about it. >> reporter: bastille day in france is a holiday and

typically a family celebration in france. and french suspected something like this maybe coming. >> just days before the attack, the director of the french internal intelligence service made a public warning, which was actually quite grim. he said that they were expecting further terrorist attacks, terrorist attacks that would be more serious than the ones they had seen thus far. >> reporter: in fact, the french intelligence services have recently come under fire. just last week, a parliamentary committee, set up to investigate last year's terrorist attacks in paris, cited widespread failures and called for a streamlining of a cumbersome system, just as the u.s. did after 9/11. evan coleman is an nbc news terrorism analyst. >> certainly there are measures france could take to improve security but to suggest that france has worse security than

italy is ridiculous or even germany. there's a recognition on the part of the french government they need all of the intelligence and information they can get and i think, as well, there's a recognition on the part of the u.s. government that our security is inherently tied in with french security. >> reporter: french investigators say security video shows the truck parked on the street for a day before the attack. he rode on a bike to retrieve it shortly before the attack began. >> apparently he had just gotten his license for heavy vehicles. was he thinking about this or is that a coincidence? >> i heard he had been a truck driver or is a truck driver, recently employed as a truck driver. maybe he got the license to get employment or the employment to get experience to do something like this. >> reporter: france just finished hosting the european soccer championships, an event that went off without problems, despite or maybe because of heavy security. one question now is whether the french let their guard down too

soon? >> once they cleared that hurdle, i'm sure there was an easing of tension and the president was planning within the next few days of relaxing the state of emergency in france. clearly that will continue for months now. it is unfortunate the relaxing may have led to people feeling more comfortable. >> reporter: tonight the short-lived calm has been replaced by chaos and fear, but among isis supporters the attack in nice is being played as very good news. >> even if there is not an official statement of endorsement from isis there are a lot of pro-isis sites celebrating today. >> this is cause to celebrate for them. this is a big victory for them. this is a big target, a western nation that is grieving again. >> reporter: all because of mohamed bouhlel, who prior to this was just a nobody in nice. but today one of his neighbors

quotes him as saying last night something haunting and prophetic. >> reporter: one day, he said, you are going to hear about me. >> as the number of attacks grows around the world and at home, what's being done to keep the home front safe? find out when we return.

i'm dara brown. turkey's president says the military coup has been defeated. he blamed the minority in the military for the action. the president was away from the capital when the situation unfolded. he flew into istanbul and addressed the nation twice. state-run tv said more than 1,500 military personnel are detained. the airport was closed for a while, but has resumed operations. now back to our program. with last night's attack, terrorists and mass murderers have added to their ever-expanding arsenal. if every truck driving down a crowded street is a potential weapon, can we ever predict or prevent the next attack? andrea canning looks at the

danger on the home front. >> reporter: while the motive of the attack in nice is unknown, it's already having a direct impact on security here at home. >> you are going to see law enforcement when they are doing public events take in to consideration the possibility that large-scale vehicles or even vessels could be used as weapon systems. >> reporter: former military counterterrorism and intelligence officer and msnbc terrorism expert malcolm nance. >> we have already seen changes. as a matter of fact, we were discussing the republican national convention that's going to be occurring in cleveland this next week. we've seen them shift from metal barriers to concrete jersey barriers. >> reporter: it is a security tactic new york city has used for years. according to nypd commissioner jon miller. >> we have tons, tons and tons of concrete and barriers and we will lay those in configurations so a vehicle can't get through but basically we will put a ring of concrete around an event if it is going to be heavily

attended. >> reporter: in 2010, the department of homeland security warned american law enforcement of the possibility of a vehicle attack, like what happened in nice. specifically citing events like street festivals and farmers markets. >> should people be afraid to go to street fairs and events that have crowds in light of what happened? >> if you look at the sheer statistics of it, the likelihood of being caught in a terrorist attack, particularly on u.s. soil is extraordinarily low. but each of these things gets a lot of attention. >> it is amazing we haven't had a major terrorist attack here in a very long time. why do you think we have been able to avert that? >> i think we have put an enormous amount of resources in to this this nationally. new york gets $180 million every year from the federal government to help pay for the enormous cost of counterterrorism. >> reporter: in rio, where the olympics are just three weeks

away, officials say they are beefing up security in light of the attack in france, including increasing the number of check points and traffic restrictions. i would have to imagine that some people are on edge who are going to rio. >> the olympics are a global-level security event. hopefully the brazilians have put in to place all of the same security structures, which are standard at most olympics. i wouldn't say that there's any known threat in, you know, south america at this point. >> reporter: former executive assistant director of the fbi and nbc national security analyst sean henry says terrorist tactics are changing. how are the methods shifting of the way these attacks are carried out? >> the attackers will look for the place of least resistance. they will, and we've seen them move to soft targets because they are easier to attack. they require less planning, they require less resources and they

can have maximum impact. historically, we have seen them look at iconic attacks. when we look at al-qaeda and their attacks on the world trade center, u.s. navy ships, we are seeing attackers look at more targets that are part of the american day-to-day life, restaurants, movie theaters, that sort of thing. >> reporter: these attacks are changing the way that we think and go about our daily life. >> i think people are absolutely adapting the way they live their lives. what's important is they don't become fearful and disrupt their lives because that is playing in to the terrorists' hands. >> reporter: henry says everyday citizens can play a valuable role in preventing attacks. >> i think it is important for people to be alert and aware. because they have the potential to help provide critical pieces of intelligence that would be valuable to law enforcement and the intelligence agencies to mitigate these threats. if they have an awareness and are alert and can inform law

enforcement they can help to thwart these attacks. >> reporter: nance says the good news is the u.s. is at a lower risk than europe. >> the united states is far safer from acts of terrorism than most other parts of the world. france right now is being dragged in to a -- how can i put it -- a philosophical clash. a belief that europe and the west and the middle east, particularly islam, are at war. there's a massive, massive national infrastructure of protection around the united states and around american citizens. the armed forces, the intelligence agencies of the united states, department of homeland security, the united states has one of the largest police forces in the world. >> have terror attacks become the new normal? keith morrison with thoughts on what that means for all of us when we come back. p?p?h

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a day on the french rivieria, paradise for 11-year-old texan brodie copeland and his father sean. last night, fireworks on the promenade, and then the perfect family vacation came to a nightmarish end. the horror and heart break that occurred along this formerly idyllic waterfront washed ashore 5,500 miles away upon lake travis in the small city of lakeway, texas, home to the copelands.

aaron cable, a family friend who coached the copeland's youngest son is still trying to come to terms. >> it still hasn't set in. just shocked. very small world. you don't think it will happen to somebody you know or someone you are close to. >> reporter: the copelands had come to the riveria as part of a dream family vacation. sean and his wife kim were celebrating her 40th birthday. they brought along his older kids, megan and austin and their 11-year-old son brodie. this is brodie in the water in nice. a picture his family sent out yesterday afternoon. >> the family was very excited about their trip. i was envious for them to go on the trip. they went and did the running of the bulls in spain. >> reporter: after spain, here in nice last nice, they watched the bastille day fireworks. minutes after the show ended, all hell broke loose and this american family was trapped in

the truck's murderous path. sean copeland and 11-year-old brodie were killed. the family is devastated. the dream vacation now turned a living nightmare. relatives back home posted grief-filled messages on social media. one tweet said "i just want my cousin and uncle back." >> brodie is a kid you want to be friends with. he is fun and good at sports. your every day all american child. >> reporter: baseball brought father and son together and this haunting image was posted today by kim copeland. >> sean copeland, all around great father, great guy. in my experiences with him, extremely supportive of not only our organization but everybody in our organization. 100% family man. >> reporter: at brodie's school, his teacher remembered a popular student known for his intelligence and sense of humor. >> i had told him on the last day of school, when you get your academy award, i hope you

refer to mention me. so it's heart breaking that wonderful talented child is not going to be finishing what his dreams were. >> reporter: brodie was one of ten children killed in the attack, at least 50 more young people were injured. the attacks seem to be coming on an almost weekly basis, each one so shocking. the world has changed. have we? here's keith morrison. ♪ >> reporter: and so another one. another outrage, another shock to the system. there's a cadence to these things now, lately up tempo. paris barely eight months ago, and then brussels and then just four weeks ago orlando, and then baghdad, istanbul, and now here in nice, of all places.

in this european playground, among relaxed, happy people on a great ancient national independence day. once again a president goes on television to reassure us. as president hollande put it, france is in tears and the freedom celebrated by great victories of the french people begun on that very day, bastille day, are narrowed again for the sake of public safety. state of emergency extended, reserved called up, troops on the streets, fear, fear everywhere because it could and does target the innocence everywhere, corroding good will, punching holes in first world bucket lists. a texas father and son were mowed down watching fireworks as were vacationers from all over

europe. so, do we travel, see the world? stay home and hide? of course not that, they tell us, and then the terrorist win. thus, the world seems, er is, different, darker, though there's nothing new about this. terrorists have been with us since long before any of us were born and the aggrieved and disaffected like the one in nice from whatever imagining that slaughtering innocence, little children in the streets they somehow serve a cause, there's a poem that tends to circulate at times like this. a haunting thing to hear some of the opening lines. waves of anger and fear circulate over the darkened lands of the earth, obsessing our private lives. world war ii was starting when w.h. auden wrote that and then 15 years ago it started in ernest again. so we know about waves of anger and fear. seemed like the center wouldn't

hold then but it did and will again in france. so besieged this year by terrorism. back then, after september 2001, we settled in to something we called a new normal, not a pleasant one. and yet, last night after that truck plowed through the innocence in nice, and the gun fire broke out, neighbors, all along that road, opened their doors to perfect strangers, offering sanctuary, just as neighbors had done after the attacks in paris. and overnight, the police in orlando tweeted "our hearts are breaking for the people of france again." #prayfornice. because of course there's good in the world, oceans of it inextinguishable. >> some of the most memorable images from a day many people in france and around the world would like to forget when

"dateline" returns. we'll be right back.

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we can give you the facts, the numbers, try to describe the horror but in the end nothing will say more about what happened here last night than the images, captured in the minutes during and long sad hours after.

♪ ♪ >> all people were running everywhere. screaming. no one understood what's going on. >> we heard screams and pop, pop, pop, pop sounds. just bodies and blood everywhere.

>> i can't even tell you how many people i saw die in front of my eyes. i'm not sure how to process what i witnessed. ♪ i'm very traumatized. nobody should see that at all. >> that's all for this special edition of "dateline."

we'll have the latest on the attack here tomorrow on nbc nightly news and msnbc. i'm lester holt reporting from nice. for all of us at nbc news, good night. we are back and what a day, what a night it has been in turkey, an attempt at a coup and that is really all we can call it until we have proof to the contrary. this was the scene near one of the major bridges in istanbul when gunfire rang out and civilians who had rushed the bridge after the military had closed the bridge got apparently too close to one of the checkpoints and gunfire rang out. actually that is also where we saw some of the wounded getting