UC Berkeley Student Missing After Attack in Nice; Three Other Students Injured

Nick Leslie, a UC Berkeley student studying abroad, is missing after the truck attack in Nice, France, according to news reports.

Leslie, who grew up in Del Mar but was originally from Italy, was along the promenade when a French-Tunisian citizen drove a truck through crowds of people who had gathered to watch fireworks, killing 84.

“His uncle Fabio Bottini is checking hospitals in Nice to try to locate him and is in contact with his mother back in California,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Daily Beast is reporting, however, that a friend of Leslie’s said he saw the 20-year-old bolting off through the streets of Old Nice. However, Leslie’s aunt, Bottini’s wife, said the student never returned to his student housing on Thursday night.

Leslie is a junior in the College of Natural Resources, according to UC Berkeley. He is one of 85 students on a 15-day study abroad program called Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Europe, part of the international European Innovation Academy. The program has been suspended temporarily for France’s three days of mourning.

Three other UC Berkeley students attending the program were also injured in the Nice attack, according to the school. Two students suffered broken legs after the attack and one student has a broken foot, according to UC Berkeley News.

The campus has offered to bring home any students who wish to leave; three have taken up the offer so far, according to UC Berkeley.

Vice Provost Cathy Koshland and Dean of Students Joseph Defraine Greenwell sent out a message to the community expressing their sympathy to all affected by this “tragic event” and “senseless violence.”

The is the second terrorist attack in two weeks affecting UC Berkeley students. On July 2, Tarishi Jain was killed by Bangladeshi terrorists who took over a restaurant in Dhaka, the country’s capital. She was 18.

Leslie is an accomplished kite surfer and scuba diver, according to his Facebook page.

Watch the Wall Street Journal’s video interview with Leslie’s uncle here.

This story was updated as more information became available.

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