in one of the world's most beautiful vacation spots, on one of the most popular holidays, bass teal day, their 4th of july, terror. >> we're sitting ducks. >> france is attacked again. >> it is thousands of people packed like sardines, mowed down by someone driving a truck. >> investigators are going through to see if anyone was directing him at this target on this day. >>

>> hasn't set in. very small world. you don't think it will happen to someone you know. >> so many lives lost. >> the world is getting dangerous, my friend. >> i'm alive and people standing next to me are not. >> is in the new normal? >> these attacks are changing the way that we think. >> people are absolutely adapting the way they live their lives. >> these things can happen wherever you go. >> you can't live in fear. life goes on. >> the bastille day attack, a "dateline" special. >> i'm lester holt in nice. a ghostly white truck cut a trail of terror and death for more than a mile along the city's famed beach front boulevard. least 84 people are dead, including ten children and

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 doesn't seem to have a link to any terrorist group. dennis murphy has the latest. >> reporter: it was the french version of the 4th of july, bastille day. the great summer holiday when families sun, eat, drink and gather for the fireworks show. as thousands did along the beach in nice. an evening of rolling thunder on the mediterranean. american businessman. >> it is a fantastic atmosphere. americans can relate to july 4th and that's what it felt like. >> reporter: the fireworks finale around 10:30 turned out to be the beginning. the crowd was starting to disperse. moms and dads, kids in strollers. >> we were heading back to our apartment, just stopped to enjoy one of the bands played he

time, a man off the side street had taken the wheel of a great white refrigerated truck that was lumbering down the promenade, the boulevard that hugs the arc of beach on the med. street traffic had been blocked for the celebrations. that truck shouldn't have been there. >> we turned to hear a lot of commotion and shrieking and shouting and then we saw a truck. >> reporter: the driver climbed the sidewalk, finding his first victims to mow down. bystanders agast at what they just seen assumed it was an awful accident. >> we were sitting there shocked, didn't know what happened because a truck blew through a pedestrian walkway. >> reporter: the driver kept moving, clipping barricades, plowing in to a crowd that could not get out of his way. >> terror had arrived in a french resort city, not in a hijacked plane or a carload of armed men but in the form of an

this purpose. bodies being tossed and scattered, dragged under the wheels. adults, teens, children, all the same as targets. >> i seen one guy sobbing, crying. we seen people holding babies, screaming, shouting. it was horrendous. >> reporter: video taken from a balcony overlooking the promenade shows the truck, now a murder weapon, barrelling down the boulevard, leaving blood and mayhem in its wake. the driver kept going. his path of destruction would be more than a mile in length. eyewitness nadar al -- >> i saw the truck coming in front of me and he stopped two meters in front of me. >> reporter: panic took hold as everyone seemed to realize they were under siege it was happening again. a major terrorist attack in france.

the third in less than two years, fracturing an already fragile nation. >> i was frozen in my place and i just took out my cell phone and turned on my video. >> reporter: his cell phone video captured the beginning of the end as brave police surrounded the truck and exchanged gun fire. >> very close to each other, very, very sad. pop, pop, pop, pop. >> reporter: melba, her daughter and baby visiting from california were steps away. >> i was terrified. i put my hand on the baby's mouth so she wouldn't scream. >> reporter: as the shots kept coming, another visitor kayla repan didn't know what was happening but knew she had to get away fast. >> i grabbed my fiance and we started running. we're not local. so we didn't know where we were goin

something. it seemed like everyone was running -- we were running away from something but just turning down allies and looking for somewhere that might be safe. >> reporter: witnesses say parents were desperately trying to protect their children. some even throwing them to safety. eric and his wife were on the beach watching terrified people fall around and on them. >> as we were running to this area, which is very short distance from where we were seated people started literally diving off the promenade on to the beach, including there was a corrugated metal roof on top of the restaurant. one guy dove on to that and rolled over and landed on my wife. she was okay. she's got some brucises but wil be fine. >> the nice waterfront looked like the war zone it was. the wounded, the dead, the dying. >> you could see bodies and blood everywhere. the bodies were covered.

i thought they were sheets but turned out they were restaurant table cloths. but horrifying sight. >> reporter: a count of 84 dead, 10 of that number children and teens. 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. brodie's little league coach aaron cable. >> littlest guy on the team. any team he was on. the second baseman. little firecracker. >> reporter: elsewhere on social media people asked for help in finding the still unaccounted for, including a missing uc berkeley student nick leslie. three other students from the school were injured. by daylight the murderous truck driver had been identified. 31-year-old mohamed lahouaiej bouhlel, a frencsi

tunisian birth lived in the area and has an estranged wife and children. nbc news's bill nealy. >> the driver mohamed lahouaiej bouhlel rented the truck three days ago. he picked it up a few hours before he got in behind the steering wheel and started to come up this street. >> reporter: in a season of international rampages, from orlando to istanbul to dallas, it was the beleaguered french president's turn again at the microphone in the middle of the night. francois hollande addressed his nation and the watching world. >> i can assure you we will always be stronger than those trying to attack us. >> reporter: today president obama echoed those thoughts. >> we cannot give in to fear or turn on each other or sacrifice our way of life. we cannot let ourselves be divided by religion because that's what the terrorists want. >> reporter: the candidates weighed in, hillary clinton

gathering and trump saying he'd declare war on isis. while all eyes seem to be on france, 0 it of the blue came another headline about global turmoil, confused reports about a military coup attempt in turkey. from the heart of europe, it felt like the wheels were coming off. beginning with a fireworks show that spun in to an atrocity. today a crime scene more than a mile long had been 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. while it is early in the investigation, the driver appears to have acted alone. >> this is something that was planned out. it was something premeditated well in advance. >> reporter: nbc news terrorism analyst evan coleman said it could be easy for a lone wolf to

>> this is not someone who necessarily would have come up on the radar of counterterrorism investigators. >> reporter: today authorities were pouring over debris left in the wake of the attack. looking for any and all clues to how and why this horrific act of terrorism happened. retired fbi special agent tim clemente says the authorities next steps are clear. >> investigators in nice are going through this guy's background to see if there are any connections, to see if somebody directed this. >> reporter: this morning, the french government extended the state of emergency status by another three months. security was beefed up at all major events but some have been cancelled. the upcoming nice jazz festival and a rihanna concert gone. the tour de france attracts thousands of spectator and it went on as planned today along the mountainous route in southern france with added

to tour officials. for generations of dreamers and romantics, the riveria, the south of france, has been a sun-kissed place but also a state of mind, a way of being. last night, the ugliness of the world we all share now paid a murderous call. >> when we come back, witnesses to terror. how they survive, what they saw. what they will never forget. "dateline" will be right back. 3 i have been working in oral health care for the last 12 years. there is a perception amongst dentists that whitening toothpastes are not good for people with sensitive teeth. some are quite abrasive. what we've developed in sensodyne true white is a product that is 10 times less abrasive than many of the whitening toothpastes that are out there, and especially designed for sensitivity sufferers. it's different, there's nobody else out there that i'm aware of that has developed whitening for people with sensitivity

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>> 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 spell bound. >> 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

its beautiful boardwalk and ended up staying for the fireworks. the mood was so personal and just wonderful, lighthearted. >> joyous. >> joyous, yeah, yeah. >> r. >> reporter: when did you know something was wrong? >> you know the difference between something being perfect, delightful and fantastic to complete disaster 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 shock, 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. >> reporter: a truck, a lori heading up the promenade with a demon behind the wheel. >> the guy was chasing people. like inside of a video game. >> 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 lorrie, physically driving over children, women, and -- >> these are pictures jack took with his phone. we blurred them. he 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. >> reporter: the hannah family was saved by fate. they headed to a restaurant leltss than a minute before the truck got to their spot. you came this close to terror. what does it make you think? >> to get away from this and we are lucky that we -- 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. i think i'm okay. [ sirens ]

story of being an eyewitness to horror, 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. >> 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 learned 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 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?

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. with my moderate to severe crohn's disease,... ...i was always searching for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i had it covered.

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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 lahouaiej bouhlel, a

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

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 kales 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 b j

>> 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 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 celebration in france. and french suspected something like this maybe coming.

the director of the french internal intelligence safs 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

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. 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 a

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 re 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 lahouaiej 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,

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♪ danger on the home front. >> reporter: while the motive of the attack in nice is unknown,

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

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 frce

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 assist tent 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. s what 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: he 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

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a day on the french riveria, 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 5500 miles away upon lake travis in the small city of lakeway, texas, home to t c

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 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: last night they watched the bastille 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-

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 couskouz cousin -- cousin and u back. >> everyday 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 2k3we9 your academy award, i hope you remember 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 beach. 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 watching fireworks as were vacationers from all over europe. so, do we travel, see the world? stay homd

of course not that, they tell us, and hen 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. outen 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." #pray for nice. 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 wo ♪

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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 along sad hours after. ♪ ♪ >> cleaning. no one understood what's going on. >> we heard screamd

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 witness ed. ♪

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.

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