konga Ad Campaign konga Ad Campaign konga Ad Campaign
ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Nigerian who escaped death in France terrorist attack narrates ordeal

Zainab Usman

Nigerian who escaped death in France terrorist attack narrates ordeal

byCletus Ukpong
July 18, 2016
3 min read

A Nigerian woman has recounted how she narrowly escaped death during the recent terror attack in France.

Zainab Usman, a Ph.D candidate in Oxford University, United Kingdom, and a member of PREMIUM TIMES editorial board, said she walked away from the target of the attack 10 minutes before a Tunisian man, identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhle, deliberately drove a cargo truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, killing 85 people and injuring 303.

The attacker was killed in an exchange of fire between him and the police, during the attack.

“I am one of the lucky ones who had left the Promenade just minutes before the incident,” Ms Usman wrote on Sunday on her blog.

Here’s the excerpt of her story as shared on the blog and on Facebook.

“I am in a large crowd walking on one of the adjacent streets, at the main city square, Place Massena, heading home, when we see people running from the Promenade, spilling into the square.

“It is frantic. Chaotic. Nothing like I have ever seen. Mothers grab their children. Friends disperse. The crowd sways and moves in all directions, with a collective look of sheer terror. Something is happening. We don’t know what it is. No one knows.

“My Brazilian classmate pulls my arm and urges me to run. I just had a new, ‘revolutionary’ hairdo. It feels heavy and is dragging me behind. Nevertheless, I run into one of the backstreets. Holding my hair with one hand, my handbag with the other, like a cartoon character, feeling scared and ridiculous at the same time.

““We stop. It feels surreal. We actually manage to crack a little laughter amidst all the confusion. We, at least I thought it might have been a false scare. There had been a bomb scare just the week before, a few meters away from my apartment, and the entire area, a 200m radius, had to be cordoned off. No one knows what is happening. Then we start running again. We hear what sounds like gunshots. Now I’m really scared. I imagine gunmen shooting into the crowd. We run, until I get home, and my classmates disperse.

“I am stunned and dazed. Several minutes later, I start receiving phone calls, text messages and emails from my closest friends who knew I was (and still am in Nice for about two weeks now for a summer French course) checking to find out if I was okay. It feels surreal.

“Afterwards, I switch on the TV and check the internet, and gradually realise the gravity of what is happening, and what a close shave I had. As the night wears on, and gives in to daybreak, the details of the terrorist attack emerge. The death toll climbs higher. From ‘dozens’ and ‘twenties’ to fifty, sixty, seventy and eighty. I am more stunned the more I realise how lucky I am to have left that area immediately after the ‘feu d’artifice’ (fireworks display).

“I get to my French language school at 09.00hrs, thankfully, a three minute walk from where I live. The mood is sombre. Many people did not show up. There is no way of knowing if they are safely hiding at home or if they are missing and are among the injured and the dead. People are huddled in corners, crying, shivering, in shock. An American girl is shaking like a leaf. Her face is wet and red. She wants to go back home. Her justified hysteria makes me emotional. The school authorities console us, urge us to be strong, give us precautionary advice. Many people were at the fireworks display. 14 July, was Bastille Day, a national holiday feted by all, which had turned to a national tragedy.

“At mid-day, I go out to buy lunch and grab a newspaper at the city centre, close to the school, and about 15 minutes’ walk from the scene of the attack. The mood is sombre. Most stores are closed. People look downcast, most remain indoors, rightfully so. It is different from the vibrant Nice that is full of life, color, elegance and well-dressed, good looking and tanned people. An otherwise sunny and bustling city is enveloped in an unmistakable blanket of greyness.

“I stay indoors the whole day. Feeling more stunned but surprisingly neither afraid nor hysterical. I can’t believe how lucky I am. As the day wears on, a numbness and heaviness in my heart persists, realising those people who were not so fortunate were in so many ways like me.

“Sometimes I want to cry, but I don’t. The story would have been different if I had stayed at the Promenade for just 10 minutes longer, or if I had decided to walk up a few meters to the famous Hotel Negresco. So close. This realisation gnaws at me still.”

  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket


CITIZEN-FM AD


Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: Call Willie - +2348098788999






PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

Women protest in Ondo over Dino Melaye’s attack on Remi Tinubu

Next Post

Buhari under fire over arms panel’s exemption of Dambazau in latest probe report

Cletus Ukpong

Cletus Ukpong

Cletus Ukpong is PREMIUM TIMES' assistant editor in charge of Nigeria's South-South region. He is a graduate of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Twitter: @CletusUkpong

More News

Senate Plenary [PHOTO CREDIT: @NgrSenate]

Unemployment: Nigeria needs graduates with technical skills — Ministerial nominee

June 29, 2022
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN presides over the Federal Executive Council Meeting this morning at the Statehouse, Abuja. 29th June, 2022. [PHOTO CREDIT: Tolani Alli]

Osinbajo presides over FEC meeting

June 29, 2022
FILE: Court and justice symbols used to illustrate the story

DPP drops charge against ex-Lagos school driver accused of raping toddler

June 29, 2022
Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun [PHOTO CREDIT: @dabiodunMFR]

Strike: Ogun governor meets workers

June 29, 2022
International Press Institute

Press freedom groups condemn arrest of Bauchi journalists

June 29, 2022
PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu

2023 General Elections: PDP urges UN to guard against manipulation

June 29, 2022
Next Post
ANALYSIS: How Buhari’s ministers performed in first year (Final Part)

Buhari under fire over arms panel's exemption of Dambazau in latest probe report

National Association of Nigerian Students

​Gunshots rock NANS convention in Gombe

Read All Comment

Search

AUN-PT Ad




Access Bank Ad







Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 1,899,067 other subscribers.

Advertisement




netherland biz school Advert



ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • #PandoraPapers
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Opinion
  • The Membership Club
  • DONATE
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • PT Hausa
  • Dubawa NG
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.