Nice attack injuries so horrific most of the dead still haven't been identified — by Tom Batchelor Daily Express 19/7/2016
THE victims of the Nice terror attack were so badly injured that hospital staff and police have only been able to identify the bodies of 35 of the 84 killed.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a 19-tonne truck into crowds of revellers in the southern French city of Nice on Thursday evening as they celebrated Bastille Day.
Five days after the attack, hospital staff are struggling to identify those who were brutally killed. The task is complicated further because a number of those killed were babies and young children.
Families have expressed anger at the long wait for answers after French prosecutors confirmed that 49 bodies have yet to be identified. Some have launched public appeals for information relating to their loved ones after receiving no information from the authorities.
Authorities are using a new system implemented after the Paris attacks last November to speed up the process of returning the bodies of those killed to their families.
The families of 12 victims were able to see the bodies of their loves ones for the first time on Sunday — three days after the killings.
Psychologist Brigitte Erbibou, who has been helping survivors of the attack come to terms with what they witnessed, told the Independent:
"The wait is so difficult because there is no way to come to terms and begin the grieving process. That is what the children are telling me, they say 'with our Dad we know, but with our mum, it's unbearable'."
Anger among family members of the victims has also been aimed at the French government for their apparent failings to stop the killer. The number of French people who believe Francois Hollande's administration is up to the task of tackling terrorism dropped to 33 per cent after the attack in Nice.