“There is a peculiar horror in the attack in Nice ... The weapon, the target and even the place might have been chosen to maximise the damage caused to the web of trust in one another’s intentions that sustains civilisation,” said the Guardian in an editorial. “Although many attacks are carefully planned, others arise spontaneously when local or personal grievances are given a global habitation and a name ... That sort is almost more frightening. The victims, as so often in these atrocities all around the world, were entirely innocent people, often whole families, caught up in a moment of celebration, one of those times when everyone in the crowd seems united in a common determination to enjoy the moment until the unthinkable violence strikes.”

Expanding on the universal nature of modern-day terror, the paper said: “Whether it is the crowds celebrating the end of the Ramadan in the recent Baghdad bombing [which killed 156], concert-goers of last autumn’s atrocity in Paris, or the 74 celebrating Easter in a park in Lahore in April, the intended message is always the same: that nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. The challenge to our values is at the same time political, religious, military and social. So must the response be. This has implications that go beyond politics or security policies. Acts of war like the atrocity in Nice are above all affronts to the decency that all human beings have in common: as ordinary unheroic citizens we can stand in solidarity with the ordinary citizens of Nice and share small acts of common decency with our neighbours.”

Lamenting the tragedy, the Boston Herald said: “Once again a terrorist has taken deadly aim on France, on Bastille Day — a day that celebrates all that is noble and brave about French history and the values. The irony, of course, is that France, having successfully hosted the European soccer championship without incident, was set to lift its nearly nine-month-long state of emergency — the one imposed after the November attack in Paris that killed 130. Now that has been extended for another three months — not that it seems to matter much in stemming the tide of violence. The terrorists are more nimble than security forces, which in France have been greatly outnumbered. A few years ago those hatreds would result in a few overturned cars set on fire in the streets of the Paris Banlieue or Marseille. Today those hatreds are stoked by [Daesh], with its savvy use of the internet and its detailed instructions for causing mayhem and murder with whatever is available.”

The New York Times was more omniscient in its comments, exploring the typical reaction of society to such attacks. “How we react to terrorism has become a measure of who we are, as individuals and as a society,” it said in an editorial. “Each new attack, each new convulsion of fear, horror, grief and anger is a progressively greater test of enlightened civilisation’s commitment to its core values. Mohammad Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the 31-year-old Tunisian who drove a truck through a festive night-time crowd celebrating Bastille Day on Nice’s seaside promenade, may well have been avenging some personal grievance with the weapon closest at hand. Or it may emerge that [Daesh] or some other organised terrorists pushed him to this atrocity, targeting France — the country with the largest Muslim population in Europe — for the third time in 19 months. But whoever struck the blow, whatever its malevolent purpose or toll, the response cannot be to abandon the respect for human rights, equality, reason and tolerance that is the aspiration of all democratic cultures. Though it has become almost a cliche to argue that the goal of terrorists is to bring their victims down to their moral level, it is also a truth, and it must be reaffirmed after every attack,” it said.

The Straits Times in Singapore condemned the atrocity and said: “It is this challenge that France will have to face down in the aftermath of the Nice attack: the insidious spread of individuals turning to terror, whether they act alone or in groups, will need to be monitored and blocked. The extension of a state of emergency declared after the Paris attack allows the French authorities to use every resource of the law to deal with the threat within. Cooperation with countries that face similar threats — in the Middle East, Europe, the Americas and Asia — must complement domestic efforts. The world has come together to condemn the Nice attack. Now, it must work together in practical ways to prevent the next attack, in France and elsewhere.”