The network evening newscasts dropped plans to lead with speculation surrounding Donald Trump‘s choice of a running mate to cover the breaking news of dozens killed in France in what has been described as an “attack” involving a box truck driven into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day.
On NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt tossed to NBC’s Kelly Cobiella, and then to Bob Franken, in Nice. “I did not see the truck itself,” Franken told Holt. “Witnesses said that it jumped the pedestrian area, which is right along the Mediterranean and started mowing down people. I immediately went out there and I counted a dozen bodies both dead and injured. And chaos.”
The CBS Evening News also had a reporter in France, Elaine Cobb, who talked briefly to anchor Scott Pelley from Paris.
ABC’s World News Tonight had a witness, Jimmy Ghazal, who described how the festive atmosphere was shattered, telling anchor David Muir “I heard loud noises and people started screaming and shots being fired up in the air.”
World News also had correspondent Alex Marquardt at ABC’s London bureau, and ABC senior justice correspondent Pierre Thomas.