Nice attack: Hero stopped killer's rampage by leaping into lorry and wrestling with him

The man's murderous rampage could have lasted far longer and taken many more lives without the intervention of a member of the public, sources said

Policemen walk on the site where a truck drove into a crowd watching a fireworks display on the Promenade des Anglais seafront in the French Riviera town of Nice (Getty Images)

A man slowed the murderous rampage of a man driving a truck through a crowd in Nice by jumping into the cab and seizing his revolver.

The attacker, 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was slowed when a heroic member of the public leapt onto the vehicle and wrestled the driver.

Police sources in Nice confirmed that the murderous two kilometre charge of the lorry might have been even longer if it had not been for the courage of a member of the public.

They said the man had hurled himself into the cab when the 20 tonne truck was held up by an obstruction. He wrestled with the driver, who seized a revolver and fired several shots at the man and at police officers who arrived on the scene. None was hurt. The driver was then shot dead by two officers.

Eyewitness Eric Ciotti told Europe 1 said that as people tried to flee from the truck, someone jumped in and was able to help the police kill the man.

"A person jumped on to the truck to try to stop it," he told the radio station.

"It's at that moment that the police were able to neutralise this terrorist. I won't forget the look of this policewoman who intercepted the killer."

Egyptian Nader El Shafei told the BBC he saw the driver "looking very nervous".

He said: "I kept yelling at him, waving with my hands to stop and trying to tell him that there is a lot people under his truck - dead already. But he did not give any attention to anyone outside the truck.

"And suddenly I saw him picking up something like a cellphone. I thought he would call the ambulance for the accident but it seemed that I was wrong, because he just picked up his gun and he started to shoot the police.

"Just when they (the police) arrived they just felt something was wrong so they kept yelling at him and when he did not step out - they saw him from the window taking his gun out.

"They knew that would be a gun shooting so they just killed him right away - they did not wait to negotiate or something, they just opened fire on him."