When the massive truck went into the Promenade des Anglais, tunning over a woman, the first reaction of Alexander Migues, on a motorcycle, was that the driver must have lost control. But then the truck came back on the road and headed straight for him.
Instead of fleeing Mr Migues manoeuvred his motorcycle along the 19 tonne vehicle and then on leapt onto it and tried to wrestle the driver’s door opened, dropping off only when the killer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlal was about to shoot him.
This was filmed at the time and the act of extreme bravery became one of the most memorable images in the night of terror. Mr Migues, who had to receive medical treatment, has spoken for the first time about what happened.
“I saw the truck rise into the sidewalk and run over this lady. It then came off the sidewalk and tried to run me over as well” he recounted. “ Instinct took over : I can’t even explain now how I started chasing the truck. When I saw him doing what he was doing, being so determined, I felt I had to do something.”
Another member of the public threw his scooter under the 19 tonne refrigerated truck in an attempt to stop it. Mr Migues told Nice Matin newspaper “ the scooter hit the truck and then I heard shots being fired. I did what I could, but I would have loved to have stayed on in the truck and force it onto the central reservation or slow it down more so that more people had time to escape.”
Mr Migues said he had been overwhelmed by what had happened. “For 36 hours I could not sleep at all. Then it began to get a bit better. Now, if I wake up early I just take my bike and ride, I try to clear my mind.”
Reports at the time described how at least one motorcyclist appeared to have been killed in the incident - possibly a result of witnesses seeing a scooter going under the truck.
