5 children still critical after France truck attack

NICE, France – Five children and 21 adults were still fighting for their lives in hospital on Saturday, July 16, after the Nice truck attack, the French health ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said a total of 121 injured people remained in hospital while another 182 people had sought care in hospitals around the city and in nearby towns.

Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, smashed a 19-ton truck into a packed crowd on Thursday night just as a fireworks display was ending, killing 84 people, including 10 children.

The children were being treated at the Lenval Foundation paediatric hospital in the French Riviera city.

Lenval spokeswoman Stephanie Simpson said that “5 children are still in critical condition and one child has stabilized”, adding the hospital had treated 30 children the night of the attack.

Among the children is an unidentified 8-year-old boy who may be a missing Romanian national.

“Three Romanian nationals, two spouses and a minor, who were in the Nice area at the time of the attack have not yet been located”, Romania’s foreign affairs ministry said.

“There is one minor (at Lenval) who could be the missing child”, it added. 

Simpson, the hospital spokeswoman, said the youngest to be treated at Lenval was six months old, with most of the children being treated for head trauma and fractures. 

“We are used to treating lots of children, what has been difficult to manage is the psychological aspect,” Simpson said. 

A team of trauma counsellors has been working at the hospital, seeing over 50 families since the attack. 

The Islamic State group, which claimed attacks in Paris in November 2015 that killed 130 people, said one of its “soldiers” carried out the attack in Nice “in response to calls to target nations of coalition states that are fighting (ISIS)”. – Rappler.com