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Aftermath of Attempted Coup in Turkey; Country in Chaos; Five Taken Into Custody in Connection with France Attack. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 16, 2016 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:00]

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: We are following two major stories this hour, the uncertain situation in Turkey following Friday's overnight coup attempt. Military forces have been on the streets. But they have been confronted by thousands of people and the president says the attempted coup has failed.

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Whilst in the south of France here, we have learned that five people have been taken into custody in connection with the deadly attack here in Nice. This as names of some of the victims.

Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster.

ANDERSON: And I'm Becky Anderson. And you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

ANDERSON: A violent and bloody coup attempt in Turkey has killed at least 60 people. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says it has failed and his government is in control. It is slowly reasserting power after opposition soldiers tried to take over. At least 1,500 military personnel have been amassed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): This nation chose a certain government using their own will by election. The government is in control; 50 percent of the people elected a president and that president is on duty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, Friday night, members of the Turkish military bombed government buildings, including parliament.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON (voice-over): This video was taken during an airstrike on the parliament building and posted on social media. Soldiers also entered our affiliate, CNN Turk in Istanbul, claiming martial law. The network resumed broadcast about 45 minutes after being taken off the air.

And troops also stormed Turkey's state -run TRT network to shut it down. We spoke earlier with the network's news director.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did manage to get everybody out of the building. Everybody seems to be OK. They pulled our signal down and we remained down, although my Turkish counterparts in Ankara seem to have gotten their signal back up. But my English language channel hasn't managed to do so.

But it was quite a scary moment. My staff, their phones were confiscated. So it was very hard to get in touch with people after the incident took place. Clearly, a lot of people were shaken up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Journalist Andrew Finkel has been reporting on the country for decades. He joins me now from Istanbul. And there we hear clearly people being shaken up, an attempted military coup quashed but not before buildings are fired on and people lose their lives.

The president, Andrew, says he is in charge.

Does it feel that way this morning?

ANDREW FINKEL, JOURNALIST: Well, I have been out and about Istanbul. I have to say, this is a very quiet city at the moment. It feels like a sleepy Sunday morning as opposed to a Saturday, when people go to work. I think people have decided, perhaps they were up all night seeing what was going to happen. But they certainly, there's a lot of people are out and about.

But I think that there's a general sense of relief, I guess, that order has been restored, that the coup attempt has failed and that things may get back to normal eventually. But it's going to be a long, hard trek, I think -- Becky.

ANDERSON: It is mid-morning now, take us back to the middle of the night in Istanbul and just describe what happened, what you heard and saw.

FINKEL: Well, it was a Friday night. People were out and about and, of course, something we realized that we couldn't get across the bridge, the bridges that go across the Bosphorus either major arteries of the city. Not only could we not get across the but the reason we couldn't get across them was because there were tanks and soldiers guarding them.

Well, was this a terrorist attack on the city, a major event?

Or was it a coup?

And I think pretty soon we realized that there was a coup attempt going on, there was -- a curfew was imposed. The classic that the circus state television station being occupied and that the announcer saying the government had basically exhausted its legitimacy and (INAUDIBLE) focus of the secular principles of the founding of the state and which was (INAUDIBLE) be a human rights and freedom of expression and that these were about to be restored.

But of course there was, as it were, the government fought back in the most extraordinary fashion. The president, Tayyip Erdogan, who was on holiday, (INAUDIBLE) appealed to these people not in the normal way of surrounded by guilt and guards and as (INAUDIBLE) but on --

[04:05:00]

FINKEL: -- someone holding up an iPhone and then talking through Facebook and basically answering the questions, and appealing to people to go out onto the streets, to ignore the curfew, to occupy the squares and the streets and the airport and to show (INAUDIBLE) who was boss and (INAUDIBLE) essentially that's what happened.

ANDERSON: Andrew, Turkey is no stranger to coups. But in the past, they have been successful.

So what happened this time and who was behind this plot?

FINKEL: Well, as you say, there have been three coups in my lifetime, the first in 1960, the last in 1980. But that was really quite a long time ago. So I think there's two things here.

One is that, in order for a coup to succeed (INAUDIBLE) you really have to have the whole army behind you. And in this case, I don't think that was the case. The army was divided. Half the popular (INAUDIBLE) they really did have the entire (INAUDIBLE).

And the other thing is that they really didn't get working command of society. You know, (INAUDIBLE) they essentially were defeated by people going (INAUDIBLE). In the old days, you would seize the radio station.

Nowadays, (INAUDIBLE) media and the government here is a great enemy of social media and Mr. Erdogan has described it as a great curse. But it is social media would save the government, ending it with (INAUDIBLE) the people directly, not via state media but (INAUDIBLE) to their friend, which really won the day.

So (INAUDIBLE) but why they even thought it would (INAUDIBLE) wasn't a very well thought-out plan and a lot of people died during the execution of it -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Sure, 60 dead and a thousand wounded at least.

Andrew, thank you for that.

And we have learned that U.S. President Barack Obama has spoken to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about this coup attempt in Turkey. Both officials express their support for Turkey's democratically elected government and urged all parties to avoid violence. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr spoke earlier to our Anderson

Cooper on the impact of the coup on U.S.-Turkey relations on the coup. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: For hours, we talked to officials across the city, officials at NATO, and everybody continues to say even now they are monitoring it. And it's very cautious monitoring at the moment, Anderson, because I think there is a real sense of instability that they see in Turkey tonight.

And they are not sure what to make of it. This rapidly, regardless of whether the coup succeeds or fails, has become a national security crisis.

And why is that?

Because Turkey is such a close ally in the war on terror, there are about 1,500 U.S. troops in Southern Turkey at a base called Incirlik. They fly air missions out of there every day, even tonight, against ISIS in Syria. The U.S. wants to see that continue; they want the Turks to crack down on the border to keep ISIS from Syria coming into Turkey and potentially moving on into Europe and plotting more attacks.

They want the Turks to crack down on terrorism. But here's the big problem: if the Turkish military, government controlled military, is not in full control of the country, if there is a coup, it becomes a very difficult matter of policy for the U.S. military to stick it out with the Turks.

They don't do business with countries where there's coups, where things are taken over by force, where there is not a democratically elected government. We'll have to see how it all plays out but the decision tonight in Washington, support the Erdogan government and try and ensure that they can try and maintain some stability, because Turkish politics aside, the big get for the United States, keep access to those bases and keep the Turks as an ally in the fight against ISIS.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Barbara, the U.S. has 1,500 troops stationed in Turkey.

Do we know what their status is tonight?

STARR: Well, we checked a short time ago. We are told that the base at Incirlik that we are talking about, that everything is secure, that there are no problems, that those airstrikes continue.

But -- and it's a big but -- if the government if Turkey cannot reassert control fully across the country, all of this may have to be reassessed because while the Pentagon says they are looking at it, behind the scenes, they have already begun at looking at some planning scenarios.

If they had to send additional U.S. troops into Turkey to protect the --

[04:10:00]

STARR: -- U.S. military at the base or had to send Marines to the embassy to protect that U.S. installation -- -and what about all the U.S. citizens that, tonight, are in Turkey with the Istanbul airport still shut down, how do you get them out of there?

How do you get those Americans back home?

Whether the coup continues on or not, this is a big mess for Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Barbara Starr, speaking about the situation in Turkey, earlier.

Things do seem to have calmed down there somewhat. The president says he is back in control. More on that story a little later this hour.

Let's get you now, though, to Nice and to my colleague, Max Foster -- Max.

FOSTER: Becky, coming up, we're getting details about the suspect behind Thursday's terror attack here in Nice in France. And you'll hear from a person who witnessed this awful massacre.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to you.

We are just learning that five people are now in custody in connection with Thursday's terror attack here in Nice in France. Authorities have been trying to determine if --

[04:15:00]

FOSTER: -- the suspect behind that attack, which killed 84 people, had any help from other people.

French officials say Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel plowed a rented truck through crowds celebrating the French national holiday. Police shot him dead. The 31-year-old man was born in Tunisia.

Now officials searched his apartment in Nice on Friday and took his ex-wife into custody. The French prosecutor said there were no signs that he was radicalized but he was known to police for minor crimes and France's president is pledging to continue his fight against -- the country's effort against terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): It's a lesson that we must also learn from this tragedy, from this terrorist attack, one of many more after previous others in the last five years. We are facing a long battle because we have an enemy that will continue to attack all people, all countries who possess freedom as an essential value.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Someone who was actually looking down on everything as it unfolded, the horrific scenes (INAUDIBLE) who was up on the balcony (INAUDIBLE), looking down on one of these buildings here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, that's right. I was at my friend's apartment to watch the fireworks. We watched the fireworks on the rooftop and then we saw everything unfold directly afterwards from her balcony.

FOSTER: So you would have been almost exactly where the truck stopped?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly, yes.

FOSTER: So just describe that last bit that you saw.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we can see the truck from the windows of the hotel lobby and we saw it, I suppose, pretty much right after it stopped. We heard the gunshots. We thought it was fireworks. And then we saw people running down the street.

So we went to the lobby to see what was happening and we saw the truck full of bullet holes, the front damaged and just bodies on the road behind it.

FOSTER: Did you catch a glimpse of the driver?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I didn't, no,

FOSTER: So what sense did you get as it was moving?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't see the truck moving.

FOSTER: You just saw it again.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- after it stopped. Yes, we heard the gunshots, which I suppose was them stopping the truck. And then we went to see what was happening. And then the truck was stopped there.

FOSTER: And you presumably didn't have a clue what was going on.

But what was your suspicion?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we thought it probably was some kind of terrorist attack. It was just so surreal.

And you know, something like that, a huge truck, we thought maybe there was something inside, explosives, we don't know. So -- and to have it all shot up like that, we thought it surely couldn't have been an accident.

FOSTER: We've heard a few stories from that immediate aftermath and how it looked like a war zone pretty much.

Is that how you would have described it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I would say so, yes, just seeing the bodies strewn behind the car, it was unreal.

FOSTER: And people were trying to make sense of it as well. They were trying to look for loved ones.

So did you see that as well?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did see people out, where there were bodies laying on the road, trying to shake them, people kind of wandering around, dazed. Even in our group of friends that were, luckily, safe inside, there were people that we couldn't get a hold of by phone for an hour or two.

So we were very worried about as well.

FOSTER: Presumably because the lines were down?

Everyone was phoning everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

FOSTER: So that was just a horrific situation.

So have you tried -- have you managed to make sense of any of this since?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really more just a feeling of shock, really. I'm still in disbelief. This is my home and, you know, I am on this promenade every day. It's where I run. It's where I work. So it's just -- I don't think I've made any sense of it yet.

FOSTER: Have the people had strong opinions about what happened and why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not that I have talked to. Most of the people I have talked to are mostly just kind of grieving. I think it's everyone is just kind of in disbelief that this happened.

FOSTER: And how is this going to change the way you live now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know if it's going to change anything I would do on a daily basis. But it will, certainly, for me, the promenade, this whole area, it just -- it won't be the same.

FOSTER: It's interesting because I noticed yesterday, just one street behind, all the bistros are open as normal. I don't know how busy it is normally but it looked very busy to me. So people are going about their normal lives.

Is that out of defiance or just that there is nothing else, no other sort of response really?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it could be a little bit of both, actually. You know, as I said, for me and a lot of people I know, it's just kind of a feeling of disbelief. So I guess we don't know what else to do other than the normal things --

[04:20:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- that we would do.

But I do know also that there is a strong feeling generally here, when things like this happen, that we won't let this affect us. We're going to carry on like we do.

FOSTER: Sadly, it's (INAUDIBLE) city completely dependent on tourism, isn't it, certainly over the summer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

FOSTER: And that's -- people are going to think of terrorism now when they think of Nice.

Do you worry for the people you know that work here in the hotels and the...?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm actually in tourism as well. I work as a bicycle guide. So it is a concern. But we would hope that people know that Nice is so much more than this one incident.

It has a long and beautiful history. It's still a beautiful place with beautiful people and one act by one person isn't going to change that. So we really hope that people can understand that.

FOSTER: A strong message, thank you very much indeed and thank you for telling us your story.

Well, Cyril Vanier (ph) joins us now from Paris. He's an anchor and he's an international correspondent as well for France 24.

I mean, down here, I have to say, it's all about shock and resolving everyone's feelings.

But in Paris, it's about policy, isn't it?

CYRIL VANIER (PH), FRANCE 24: You are right. The story here is a little different, even though people in Paris, of course, feel for the people who are in Nice. Bear in mind most people here will know somebody who is either in Nice now or who plan to go for the holiday.

But as you say, there is a slightly different perspective on it here because there is also the entire political angle. And you got, as we were saying earlier, the French president, Francois Hollande, who faces a tough re-election year, he is up for re-election, although he hasn't declared his candidacy in about a year's time.

Now what's his policy been so far?

Well, he wants to have very tough talk against terrorism.

But are any of his policies actually working?

I think that's a very serious, fundamental question the French people will be asking themselves more and more as we move into this election campaign because, after all, the policies that have been set in place by the government have not prevented terror attacks from happening.

Whether it's mobilizing soldiers on the national territory or increasing bombings against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, as the president said they'd be doing more of yesterday, it hasn't stopped attacks like the one we saw yesterday from happening.

So I would expect this to damage his standing, his approval ratings and chances of being reelected.

FOSTER: But what realistically can the security forces do?

Obviously, during the euro championships, there was awareness that they may be a target. And there was massive security. And it worked. This event didn't have the same sort of security.

They can't offer that, can they, for every situation?

And that's really what you're talking about when you have random low walls, if you want to call them that.

VANIER (PH): Max, you are absolutely right. And that's the fundamental question that French people across the country are asking themselves. And I think there is to some extent a tolerance for the fact that all the -- every attack cannot be stopped, especially the kind of attack we saw yesterday.

It's random, it's very hard to detect. And I think there is an appreciation for that across the general public. And that has very much been the line of both the president and the prime minister of making the general public aware that that threat is very difficult to counter.

They say that the fight is going to be long, that there are going to be more attacks. So they're preparing French people for the fact that, yes, you cannot stop everything.

Now of course we're going to have to take a longer, harder look at what the secret service can do, whether there are better forms of detection, prevention, et cetera, what kind of security measures you need to put in place within have you big gatherings like these.

A word on Nice, Max, and this may come back, I think, to if not haunt the government, at least that question will be asked. A word on Nice is the government has been focusing over the last few months on the threat outside of the capital here in France, medium cities across France.

And they know that there will be big gatherings across the summer in Nice. They've trained for this and still they weren't able to stop the attack.

FOSTER: Marine Le Pen, I'm sure, doesn't want to capitalize on this in any way, but does it somehow bolster her cause and the far right cause because what happened here and the person that carried it out, whatever their motivations, sort of fit a box, didn't he?

He was a Muslim, he was born outside the country. And we don't know whether that has anything to do with this whatsoever. But he does fit into a narrative, which is out there.

VANIER (PH): You are absolutely right to point that out because Marine Le Pen, the far right in general, their platform has been even before these attacks has been anti-immigration, has been tighter control of our borders. And so this definitely plays into her narrative. She draws a direct connection between --

[04:25:00]

VANIER (PH): -- immigration and between terror attacks. So this is going to help her. She will be able to make her case, say, look, we have allowed people from North Africa, from Muslims. This is her speaking, this is her narrative, to come into our country. And we need to tighten borders because look at what happens then.

So this is definitely something that's going to help her in these election years, that makes her narrative, I think, more audible for the French audience.

FOSTER: In terms of the election then, has this changed everything?

Is it all going to be about immigration and security?

VANIER (PH): It's going to be key. Definitely the reality in France is changing but it's not entirely new. I wouldn't say there's going to be a before and an after Nice.

Why?

Well, because as you pointed out, this is the last of a string of attacks here in France. So the reality for French people has been changing ever since the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks about 1.5 years ago.

So (INAUDIBLE) people will be asking themselves (INAUDIBLE) taking a hard look at the government and asking themselves whether the government is able to protect them.

I think people also have in the back of their minds, this idea that maybe the opposition wouldn't be faring any better because as we said, these are unpredictable attacks.

How do you protect the general people against them?

There is no sense that the opposition has a better plan than what the government has been putting in place.

FOSTER: OK, thank you very much indeed. And we're going to be following that election very closely indeed and inevitably, these sorts of stories, the ones that happened unfolded on road behind me, on the beachfront, they will play into that now.

Ahead, we'll have much more on the situation in Turkey as well. That's moving very quickly. Members of the country's military tried to seize control, it seems. The country's president says they failed, though. He's promising they will pay a stiff price for it -- details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

ANDERSON,OST: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Becky Anderson for you today in Paris.

Turkish authorities rounding up suspects after a coup attempt by opposition members of Turkey's military sent much of the country into turmoil overnight. A source within President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office tells CNN more than 1,500 military personnel have been detained.

And soldiers who took part in the coup have been surrendering, some of them coming face-to-face with pro-government supporters on Istanbul's Bosphorus Bridge. This follows a night of gunfire and explosions; at least 60 people were killed in the unrest and 1,000 have been wounded.

Well, Julian Faron (ph) joins us now as a political scientist and analyst based here in Paris.

It is becoming clearer what happened overnight. A failed coup attempt. What isn't clear is what happens next.

Your thoughts?

JULIAN FARON (PH), POLITICAL SCIENTIST: Well, it's a limited part of the army, actually, which is a little bit surprising because actually the Turkish army has a long expanse of coups in 1916, 1980. So we don't know precisely who organized that.

The President Erdogan said that was quick actually to denounce the fact that it might be his max movement, the Gulen movement, one of his opponents. But we don't know. Actually, the army does not need much of Gulen's movement to organize that.

So now it will definitely start to clean up a little bit the institution, a little bit more than it did before. ANDERSON: And certainly weeding out those that he believed were a part of this plot. We know that generals and colonels have been arrested overnight. We know that there have been at least one if not more high court judges arrested, all of those one assumes he believes are part of that Gulen brotherhood, as it were, correct?

FARON (PH): It is what he says. But another point, which is a little bit strange, is the fact that actually the president came a little bit closer to the military last time. Their relationship was never very good since the 2000 and the AK Party plus feted (ph) to denounce the fact that the military are too much involved in politics and there was some trials of very high-ranking military.

In the used 2000s but now it was a little bit better relations. Even regarding to the same characters, perhaps because the war against the PKK in the southeast (INAUDIBLE). But the relation was pretty good, perhaps this is the reason why not all the army actually followed the coup.

ANDERSON: You alluded to the PKK, a Turkish faction at war with President Erdogan and his group.

If we are seeing the beginnings of a crackdown on those who may have been involved in this coup, can you imagine a further crackdown, domestically, on other opponents?

Or is this an opportunity for reconciliation?

We have seen perhaps one bright spot overnight, in that the opposition parties have actually come together with President Erdogan and criticized this coup attempt.

FARON (PH): I think that regarding Turkish politics, the behavior of different parties, even the opposition it's interesting and working for a national unity.

But the policies regarding the PKK, I'm not sure at all that President Erdogan would change his policy. And there is not only PKK, there is also communist movements, there's a faction that split from the PKK called fact (ph).

And all these movements have spoken to undermine a little bit the Turkish state as it is today led by the president and we know as well that there was the Islamic State over there. So with a military coup, it starts to be a lot for the country.

ANDERSON: Messages of support from the international community this morning for sure. But appeals for calm from Washington and various other places, their relationship with Turkey and Turkey's relationship with the outside world, be it regionally or internationally, has been very difficult to play.

But we have seen the Turkish president offering some olive branches, some attempts for reconciliation for example with the likes of Moscow and President Putin, with Israel, possibly even with Egypt.

How does this leave Turkey?

FARON (PH): I think that the international community is interested in a stable Turkey. I really think that is the reason why the international community actually backed the --

[04:35:00]

FARON (PH): -- president because otherwise you are right. The relations with the Western powers (INAUDIBLE) is not that good.

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: -- member of NATO, for example.

FARON (PH): Yes, but they need stability. If Turkey collapsed, I mean, we get into the immigration with Europe like the E.U. integration question that the NATO you said. So and the relation with Russia that we have.

So it's a little bit difficult. And (INAUDIBLE) even the prime minister said that they should go back (INAUDIBLE) the prime minister of Turkey said that they should go back to normal relation with Syria, with Bashar al-Assad Syria, and they excuse themselves for firing at the Russian jets.

So it was like kind of new, so the international administration gets a little better. But it's always a little bit messy. Turkey's line was always to get friends with everybody. But it never kind of worked.

ANDERSON: Confusion then overnight on the streets of the cities in Turkey and very confusing for the likes of Washington, who watched what was an attempted coup unfold, a coup it now, at least, seems has been quashed and the president back he says in control.

Well, officials say at least 60 people are dead, thank you. And at least 1,000 hospitalized. CNN's Natalie Allen shows us now how it all unfolded on Twitter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN tweets on the attempted coup began at 11:30 pm local time in Turkey with the reported statement by the prime minister that Turkish military units are attempting an uprising.

Just before midnight, CNN showed Twitter video of a military jet flying extremely low over the Turkish capital of Ankara.

At 12:07 am, the Turkish military says it has taken control, according to Reuters; 40 minutes later, CNN tweeted, "Turkish military has taken over the government and imposed martial law, according to an announcement read on Turkish TV."

Then just after 1:00, CNN tweets, "The Turkish president is urging people to take to the streets, to stand up to the military."

His message had been conveyed through a FaceTime address on the phone of a CNN Turk anchor.

At 1:23 am local time, "CNN reports gunfire heard in streets amid military coup attempt in Turkey." That confusion and chaos continued for some time.

Then just after 3:00 am, CNN tweets that "Turkey's national intelligence unit claims the coup is over. But confrontations between military and demonstrators continue."

At 3:47 am, CNN Turk anchor reports, "Soldiers have entered the building. That's it. We now have to go."

Then at 5:00 am, CNN tweets "President Erdogan says law enforcement has started arresting military officers.'

By 5:26 am, CNN Turk was back on the air after being shut down briefly.

And at dawn, Turkey's president tells a large crowd in Istanbul, "The government is in control." -- Natalie Allen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: All right. Let's get more on what has been a tumultuous night in Turkey. CNN's senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir joins me now.

And Nima, you were in Hatay, in Turkey, 48 hours ago on the border with a very much impacted by the conflict in Syria. You were in Istanbul three weeks ago, reporting what was a triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport.

A country in chaos and then this.

How do you assess what is going on there at this hour?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the military has always felt that it -- when it need to step in as they put it, when there are times of political insecurity, instability, that it retains the right as a central pillar of Turkey's democracy, which is how they've always defined themselves post-Kamal Ataturk, there may -- they will do what they feel needs to be done.

But in this situation President Erdogan seems to have gambled and won by calling for his supporters to take to the streets. He put the military in an untenable position, either turn their guns and their tanks on Turkish civilians, on unarmed protectors or back down.

And it seems from the images we have been seeing of officers handing themselves in en masse on the Bosphorus Bridge, as they decided to stand down, it is still unclear whether the country is entirely back in President Erdogan's grip. And the reverberations of this will no doubt be felt not least through the crackdown of President Erdogan, has already been intimating is still to come.

But for now, the president and his allies are back in control of the country. For the NATO allies, though, of whom --

[04:40:00]

ELBAGIR: -- Turkey is a key member. There have been a few difficult hours overnight that Turkey was expected to ratchet up its involvement in Syria. Now, given how unpopular that was back at home, whether they can do that remains to be seen -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Fascinating. All right and is in Nice on assignment of course covering the horrors of the Bastille Day attack then and for the time being thank you for that. We are going to take a very short break. We'll be taking you back to Nice and for the latest from there after this. Stay with us.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to Nice. French officials say five people have been taken into custody in total now in connection with the massacre here in Nice that killed 84 people, that was four men plus the attacker's ex-wife. And we are learning more details about the attacker himself --

[04:45:00]

FOSTER: -- who was shot dead by police. Authorities say his name is Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a resident of Nice, born in Tunisia.

And police have searched his apartment and they've detained his ex- wife, as I said. But the French prosecutor said there were no signs that he was radicalized. He does though have a record for minor crimes we are hearing from many witnesses to this awful attack.

One is of them is Frank Vidal (ph) (INAUDIBLE) is with me. And we will speak to him in just a moment as we try to get a fuller picture really of how this all unfolded.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has scored a massive major blow against a military uprising, it seems. We will have much more on our breaking coverage on the attempted coup in Turkey as well coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was supposed to be a family event: fireworks, cotton candy, stuffed toys. And that is why so many of the victims were children.

Sixteen-year-old Kimberly Torres was separated from her mother in the chaos.

"I didn't understand what was happening," she told us. "I saw the truck and I went closer and then I saw everyone lying on the ground. I started running because everyone else was running, too, but I still didn't understand."

She can't finish talking to us. She starts to cry.

And then her mother says, "She's going to be 17 soon and she called me and she said, Mummy, there are dead people everywhere. There are severed heads, dismembered legs, blood. 'Mummy, come get me,' she said.

"So I left in a panic to look for her. And I tried to stay strong. I didn't want to cry in front of her. But I just can't hold back anymore."

Her leg was injured in the stampede to escape but she was lucky. At least three children remain in critical care, one still unidentified. In all, some 50 children were brought here. For many, their parents have not been found.

SHUBERT: Now this is the promenade where the attack happened. And as you can see, people have been leaving flowers here all day. The truck actually started its attack right around the bend there.

And the closest hospital to the scene is the Lonbal Children's Hospital (ph) right there. Doctors told us they rushed in, expecting many of the wounded to be brought in. But they had no idea just how many of those wounded would be children.

SHUBERT (voice-over): "These were not the wounds we saw in Brussels or Paris," says Dr. Christian (ph). "These were massive blunt trauma injuries, run over, crushed beneath the truck, something you would see in a car crash. But to have 50 children brought in from a car accident all at once is very, very rare."

Dozens of children are still in this, hospital barely able to grasp the trauma that will remain with them for the rest of their lives -- Atika Shubert, CNN, Nice, France.

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FOSTER: (INAUDIBLE) stories being (INAUDIBLE). We will be speaking to someone that's actually in the crowd on that fateful evening, on Thursday night and so much have unfold. We'll be back in a moment.

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[04:50:00]

FOSTER: Welcome back to Nice, where they are doing their best to clear this road where that horrendous massacre unfolded less than 48 hours ago. And we do expect them to open up the barriers soon to allow the public back into that space which they've always enjoyed for years and which obviously has been closed off since the incident actually took place. And that will be quite a moment in this whole process, as the country sees the promenade filled up once again and back to normal, a sense of defiance really, I think, and the public will embrace that.

And we've also had some breaking news, a claim of responsibility has been made for this attack. We're going to bring in Nima, because it's often difficult to verify these claims and to understand what they mean.

So what do you understand?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, especially giving ISIS opportunism in the past of claiming attacks that they perhaps have only inspired rather than have been directly involved with.

But it's very important to drill down on the wording of this claim of responsibility, in which their media wing are citing an unnamed security source inside ISIS, which itself is incredibly interesting wording. It's almost morphed into a news agency in the West.

But that gives you a sense that perhaps they weren't as involved as they would like to portray because when they have been involved at the early stages, they have been very quick to (INAUDIBLE) that. We saw that in Dhaka and Bangladesh where they released the pictures of the attackers and we seen that in other attacks.

This clearly is something that they would love to take credit for, that continues to amplify the impact of the terrorists had for the last month. But it's interesting that they are almost claiming it at one step removed, Max.

So perhaps they weren't as involved as they could like to claim --

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FOSTER: And if it turns out there are no links with ISIS, I guess it means that they got a way around that as well?

ELBAGIR: Absolutely.

FOSTER: Nima, thank you very much Indeed.

We have been hearing some really horrific stories from many of the witnesses to this awful attack as well. One of them is Frank Vidal. He is with me.

You were -- where were you, just a bit further down from here, right?

FRANK VIDAL, WITNESS: Yes, I was just in the front of the (INAUDIBLE). I was listening to the concert. I was just (INAUDIBLE) on the road and when I saw the truck, it was just the beginning of the concept. And it's amazing because I just stood there because the concert was good, the band was good

And I said, OK, I am going to stay a little bit. But I feel something strange in my back. And I looked in my back and I saw the truck jumping on people.

FOSTER: Deliberately driving towards...

VIDAL: No, no, no, he drives straight, very straight, because he tried to go faster and faster. But he stopped, but because he took so many people, he took so many people that after, because there was too many people at the end, so he stopped 100-150 meters after because he took (INAUDIBLE) so many people. So the people, all of the people stopped the truck. It was just awful.

FOSTER: The bodies were blocking the truck?

VIDAL: Yes, yes.

FOSTER: So he had to reverse and what had --

[04:55:00]

FOSTER: -- he move on?

VIDAL: Yes, because the truck was jumping on the road. It was just amazing. But at this time you don't realize anything because you don't think it's just crazy.

FOSTER: It was happening so fast.

VIDAL: Of course, of course, he was very fast. But (INAUDIBLE) time. And after I run from the -- on the roof, because it was just the three majors, I went to the roof. And I tried to speak with people, lay on the roof.

And it was amazing, people was the silence, the silence, because everybody was, who have died, I spoke with them to try to do something. But they just were died. And this was very awful.

And just (INAUDIBLE) maybe in my mind was more but (INAUDIBLE) after I heard the shot in my back, and there I understood it was a terrorist attack just at this time.

Before we didn't understand. And the people around didn't know we were just like, I don't know, like a ghost, like that, because we didn't realize that situation after we run (INAUDIBLE) to try to find something to hide ourselves.

And me, I went back to my place, because I'm not so far away.

FOSTER: Well, our thoughts are with you and I hope you manage to somehow come to terms with it.

VIDAL: Yes.

FOSTER: In the months ahead. But that's a --

(CROSSTALK)

FOSTER: -- in your mind. VIDAL: And yes, of course. But perhaps today, I am very sad, of course, but I said, everything, all of this is stupid because the only problem in the world is the wiser business. France, we make a lot. (INAUDIBLE), we make (INAUDIBLE). Daish, we just (INAUDIBLE).

And we have refused in France with bombing them. And today, if this happens, it's because us, we make the props everywhere in the world. And we make that.

Last year, we saw in France, we sold 25 billions of weapons, several billions of weapons. Obama made three times more (INAUDIBLE) and he got the Nobel prize, the Nobel prize peace.

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FOSTER: And we're going to speak to you a bit more little later on. But we are running out of time right now. We're going to -- there is so much as well, isn't there, as a result of this, which is absolutely understandably (INAUDIBLE).

VIDAL: It's just I'm (INAUDIBLE).

FOSTER: OK.

VIDAL: (INAUDIBLE).

FOSTER: We're going to speak to you again, we're going to be right back. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. I'm Max Foster in Nice. We will have much more on this breaking news story after this short break.

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