Among 85 UC Berkeley students in Nice for European Innovation Academy.
AB Wire
A UC Berkeley student who was in the French resort city of Nice, France, Nick Leslie, 20, has not been heard of from his friends and family back home after the terror attack on Thursday which took the lives of at least 84 people and left dozens more injured.
Loved ones pleaded on Facebook and Twitter for help finding Leslie, while holding out hope that he escaped the carnage of the deadly truck attack on Bastille Day that left 202 people injured, including three other UC Berkeley students, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
“We just want our son back,” said Conrad Leslie, the student’s father. “We haven’t gotten the bad news. Our thoughts and prayers go to the people who have.”
Leslie’s uncle was going from hospital to hospital in the South of France coastal city Friday trying to find him. Conrad Leslie said his family has received “incredible support” from the UC Berkeley campus and U.S. and French government officials in the search for his son, reported the Chronicle.
A State Department spokeswoman said the U.S. consulate in Marseille is working to account for every U.S. citizen in the city but that privacy considerations prevented the agency from discussing specific cases.
Leslie, a junior in UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, was among 85 UC Berkeley students in Nice for the four-week-long European Innovation Academy, an international program that helps students with their startup ideas, according to the campus. The program was put on hold after the attack for three days of national mourning, and several students left the program early and were on their way home Friday.
UC Berkeley’s study abroad staff was working with local officials to find Leslie, the university reported.
Three of Leslie’s peers were injured in the attack — two with broken legs and one with a broken foot, university officials reported.
Mustapha Khokhar, a friend of Leslie’s, said he received a video via Snapchat from him just 15 minutes prior to the attack. It showed Leslie dancing at the Bastille Day celebrations, said Khokhar, who hasn’t heard from Leslie since, reported the Chronicle.