The family of a University of California, Berkeley student, who hasn't been heard from since Thursday's terror attack in Nice, are traveling to France, hoping to find him.
On Saturday, NBC News confirmed that Nicolas Leslie's father, Conrad, left his home in Del Mar and was headed to the airport. He was accompanied by two other people.
An attacker, identified as 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian citizen living in Nice, is accused of driving a truck through crowds leaving a Bastille Day fireworks celebration, killing 84 people and injuring scores other.
Twenty-year-old Nicolas Leslie was among 85 Berkeley students attending a study abroad program, officials said Friday. Three other Berkeley students in the group suffered broken bones in the attack.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, French officials are refusing to identify people who were injured Thursday and are undergoing treatment at local hospitals.
"We’re trying to get ourselves to France right now," Conrad Leslie, Nick’s father, told the Chronicle. "We’re going crazy."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Leslie's uncle, Fabeo Bottini, has been going from hospital to hospital in Nice trying to get information about his missing nephew.
Local
Geert Schmid-Schoenbein, a long-time neighbor of the Leslie family, said Saturday that he was struggling to wrap his head around the fact that someone he knows was involved in such a horrific event.
"The fact that this kid goes on an education abroad trip to France and goes there to a celebration and is entangled in an event like this – and hopefully survives – is beyond any probabilities that one can ever think of," he said.
Schmid-Schoenbein recalled "good memories" that he has shared with the "wonderful" Leslie family, including the day Nicolas Leslie was brought home from the hospital as a newborn.
"It breaks my heart," he said. "This is just frightening. ... I'm speechless."
Nicolas Leslie is an only child, who has always been active and is a good student, Schmid-Schoenbein said, adding that Nicolas Leslie's parents are devoted to their son.
"We never heard any problems about Nick," he said. "We saw with great enthusiasm that he was going up to Berkeley. He came back here [to visit] frequently."
Friends told NBC Bay Area that Leslie avoided being hit by the truck but was separated from his group during the stampede and chaos that followed. They also said that the junior at Berkeley, who is majoring in the College of Natural Resources, has gone quiet on social media, which they described as unusual.
The Daily Beast reported that a friend of Leslie’s saw the 20-year old running through the streets of Old Nice. But Leslie's aunt, Bottini’s wife, said the student never returned to his student housing Thursday night.
Fellow Berkeley student, Abhinav Kukreja, who also experienced Thursday's attack, said, "Basically, we lost our friend."
French police, however, weren't of much help, Kukreja alleged. Students "tried multiple calls" and then decided to "print out flyers" to help spread the word about Leslie.
"We’ve been in touch with the American consulate and we asked for permission to put their [phone] number on the flyer and they were okay with it," Kukreja said. "So I had official permission, and apparently the police didn't like that we were putting out flyers."
Meanwhile, Leslie's friend, Anoop Baliga, has been reaching out to Leslie via social media along with many others hoping to hear from him soon. Baliga said Nick's last Snapchat story post was from a restaurant about 10 minutes away from the attack's location. He said there has been movement on Nick's Facebook page, but thought it may be because people are using his laptop to try and find him.
Chandrabh Akireddy, who knows Leslie from the Net Impact Berkeley Undergrad program, said a couple of his friends who were in the square with Leslie checked in after the attack. Akireddy's friends saw Leslie active on Facebook messenger after the attack.
Leslie's Facebook page shows that he studies at Berkeley, lives in Del Mar, California, and is from Milan, Italy. He attended Torrey Pines High School in San Diego.
Bay Area Mourns Bastille Day Attacks
According to Sanders, two of the students — identified as Diane Huang, 20, and Daryus Medora, 21 — sustained broken legs and were receiving treatment at a hospital in Nice.
A third, 23-year-old Vladyslav Kostiuk, suffered a broken foot.
Kostiuk posted a photo of his injury on his Facebook page, with the caption: "I would say only one thing: I was lucky, I'm alive, unlike other people that were walking with me. Just got out from a surgery. Picture: in a casino where I was taken first."
Students participating in the study abroad program were attending a 15-day program, which is part of the international European Innovation Academy. It was suspended to observe the three days of national mourning in France.
UC Berkeley officials said in a statement late Friday that a representative of the study abroad program is heading to Nice to support the students.
Recent terrorist attacks have impacted other Berkeley students. Berkeley sophomore, Tarishi Jain, was among 20 hostages killed by Islamist militants in Dhaka, Bangladesh on July 1.
