‘I hit him again and again, with all my force’: scooter rider who tried to stop Nice attacker tells of life-and-death struggle

When a Nice airport worker saw a truck thundering past him on the city’s promenade, crushing pedestrians in its path, he did not join the fleeing crowds but instead gave chase on his scooter.

After amateur video footage of a man on a scooter speeding alongside the truck went viral, many thought the heroic figure who tried to stop the July 14 carnage was dead.

The man, however, has been found alive and well with only a few minor injuries by Nice Matin newspaper.

Named only as Franck, he told the newspaper he had been willing to die to stop the rampaging vehicle, which crushed 84 people to death.

He and his wife had planned on watching the Bastille Day fireworks display, but arrived too late and were just heading off on his scooter to grab an ice cream when they realised something was amiss.

“We heard shouting and cars reversing. My wife said ‘stop something is not right’. We saw the crowd running in all directions, as if they were fleeing something. That is when we saw the truck coming,” he told the newspaper.