Brendan Cox has issued a message of hope to those grieving in the aftermath of the Nice terror attack, calling for people “not to fight hate with hate”.
The widower of killed MP Jo Cox spoke out on the day of her funeral, due to take place just hours after 84 people were killed in the French riviera city.
He posted a message on Twitter that paid tribute to his late wife and said he was “thinking of all victims of hatred today”.
Dozens of people were killed last night while out celebrating Bastille Day, when a truck driven by a gunman ploughed into them. 18 people were critically injured.
Referencing claims by French officials that the incident was a terror attack, Cox said that former Labour MP Jo would have asked mourners to “draw together to drain the swamp that extremism breeds in”.
He wrote:
Labour MP Barry Sheerman also spoke out on the day of his former colleague’s funeral. He lamented witnessing more “senseless and cruel violence”.
The full details of what happened late on Thursday night in Nice are still coming together, but witnesses on French television recounted scenes of horror, with one saying the truck mowed people down like ‘skittles’.
Further video footage showed men and women - one or two pushing strollers - racing to get away from the scenes. Photos showed the truck, which travelled 2 kilometres, with at least half a dozen bullet holes in its windshield.
A state of emergency, which was imposed following the November Paris attacks - due to end on July 26, has now been extended for another three months.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in the aftermath of the attack: “We are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way.”
The mass killing came as many in Britain prepared to pay tribute to Jo Cox on the day of her funeral.
The former MP was shot and stabbed to death outside a constituency surgery just under a month ago.
Her husband Brendan hailed the former Oxfam boss at a memorial rally in London as someone who “just wanted people to be happy and for the world to be a fairer place”.
The British Embassy in Paris has advised that UK citizens in the area follow the instructions of the French authorities. The embassy’s 24-hour number is +33144513100.