An abandoned baby’s stroller lay by the promenade in Nice this morning.

The TV news cameras caught it twinkling in the morning sunshine; a symbol of innocence in the aftermath of an unimaginable horror.

A few hundreds away, a large bullet-strewn truck still lurked in the shadows.

You don’t need two more starkly hideous images to understand what happened in that beautiful French city last night.

This was an attack on children and families as they celebrated France’s most important national holiday, Bastille Day.

The day that celebrates the most significant moment of the French Revolution, the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789 by angry crowds.

The day that commemorates the French people seizing back their country from its out-of-touch Monarchy and elites.

The day that personifies those three pillars of French independence: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (‘Freedom, Equality, Fraternity’).

This is France’s July 4, and now its 9/11 too.

An abandoned baby’s stroller lay by the promenade in Nice this morning - a few hundreds away, a large bullet-strewn truck still lurked in the shadows

Cameras caught the pram twinkling in the morning sunshine; a symbol of innocence in the aftermath of an unimaginable horror

So this act of despicable atrocity is not just an attack on France, it’s an attack on all of us who care about freedom.

As I write this, hard facts are still being determined about exactly what happened in Nice, and why.

But it is logical from what we do know to conclude it was perpetrated by another crazed, lone wolf assailant in the name of ISIS.

It has all the hallmarks of those medieval monsters: a creative new eye-catching method to murder lots of people, the choice of an easy well-populated target, and a staggeringly callous disregard for human life.

The use of a vehicle to commit terror was also actively encouraged by terror chiefs.

Last September, ISIS spokesman Mohammad al-Adnani instructed supporters: ‘If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run over him with your car.’

Another ISIS video in 2014 urged French-speaking recruits to attack people in France specifically with cars: ‘There are weapons and cars available and targets ready to be hit. Kill them and spit in their faces and run over them with your cars.’

Al-Qaeda, the other main Islamist terror group, has separately urged: ‘Use a pickup truck as a mowing machine, to mow down the enemies of Allah.’

At least 84 people were killed and dozens more critically injured last night when a terrorist killer, named locally as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, drove this truck, riddled with bullets, through crowds celebrating Bastille day

Police approached the lorry from all sides and fired through the windscreen and and side doors before he was killed

The Nice killer, a local man of Tunisian descent named Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhel, drove his truck deliberately and methodically into anyone he could find. Pictured, police approaching his cab

The Nice killer, a local man of Tunisian descent named Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhel, did precisely that, driving his truck deliberately and methodically into anyone he could find.

He was armed with assault rifles and grenades and didn’t care if he lived or died. He just wanted his moment of miserable martyrdom and he got it.

Whether he was part of an organised terror cell or just ‘inspired’ by ISIS may never be known.

But it is reasonably safe to assume this was another deluded, impressionable, disturbed young man whose head was turned by the sickening, twisted faith-pirates of Islamic State.

Nice, like many French cities, has a large Muslim population and has had a lot of issues with radicalised Islam.

But, as always with these ISIS attacks, Muslims were also victims. Eye-witnesses have said they saw numerous Muslims among those hit and last night, identifiable by their head scarves and Arabic voices.

There’s no point trying to rationalise what happened.

How can you explain the thought process of a man who purposefully runs over children in strollers?

Nor is there any simple answer to stop it happening again.

Many, like me, will have a sense of helplessness and foreboding this morning.

These brutal barbarians strike with impunity at the weakest, softest, most gentle of targets.

They don’t care who they kill, they want death to all the ‘infidels’ as they see anyone who doesn’t share their vile ideology, and a global Caliphate where only Neanderthals like them exist.

It’s a complex, multi-faceted threat which cannot be beaten with conventional warfare alone.

This was an attack on children and families as they celebrated France’s most important national holiday, Bastille Day. This is France’s July 4, and now its 9/11 too

But I do know this:

It’s not good enough any more just to shed our tears, say how sorry we are, recite our prayers and bash out social media hashtags. None of that, well intentioned though it is, will stop more of these attacks happening.

We need real action and real leadership from those we have elected to deal with this kind of thing but who have so far singularly failed to properly combat it.

There has to be a redoubling of the global effort to root out and destroy those who seek to destroy us, a far greater investment in police, intelligence officers and community leaders, a significantly more effective sharing of information between countries, and a substantially more tangible will amongst those who live among these killers to identify and expose their danger before they can carry out their evil acts.

We also need a more concerted, unified commitment to wiping out ISIS on the battlegrounds of Syria and Iraq where they still fight in large numbers, and where they have recently suffered a series of setbacks.

Cut off the heads of these groups - as they so love to do to people – on an international and local level, and we can go a long way to ultimately defeating this vicious enemy.

It won’t be easy and there will be much more bloodshed.

But we’ve faced worse, and we’ve beaten worse.

ISIS, as I’ve said before, are the new Nazis: a bunch of genocidal, racist, homophobic, misogynist maniacs intent on taking over the world.

The only difference is that ISIS commits their atrocities in the name of Islam, hi-jacking the real nature of that peaceful religion for their own nefarious, evil purpose.

As our leaders strive to work out what to do, we can all, in the meantime, support the French in our own personal way.

Three times they’ve been attacked on a mass scale in the past 18 months, twice in Paris and now in Nice.

Three times they’ve responded with extraordinary courage and heroism.

They will be attacked again.

As will America, and Britain, and many other countries.

ISIS want us ALL exterminated.

But they will fail in that mission.

‘France is crying, she is hurting, but she is strong and she will always be stronger than those fanatics who want to hit us,’ said Francois Hollande this morning.

Yes, she is.

And so are we all who believe in freedom.

This is a style of life which ISIS is trying to obliterate - so, in August, I will now make a point of going to Nice. I’ll walk along the promenade and remember those poor children, women and men who lost their lives last night

The aftermath: This act of despicable atrocity is not just an attack on France, it’s an attack on all of us who care about freedom

I have a vacation booked on the Côte d’Azur for later this summer.

It’s my favourite part of the world, and I’ve already been down there three times this year.

It’s a place to drink great coffee as you read the morning papers, to lunch extravagantly in restaurants of sumptuous gastronomic splendour, to devour Rosé as the sun goes down, to dine and dream under the stars and to romance those you love.

If you don’t love the South of France, you don’t love life itself.

But it’s a style of life which ISIS is trying to obliterate.

So, in August, I will now make a point of going to Nice.

I’ll walk along the promenade and remember those poor children, women and men who lost their lives last night.

I’ll also remember those astonishingly brave policemen, and the heroic civilian on the motorbike, who did what they could to stop that truck.

Then I’ll seek out one of the myriad restaurants which line the seafront, order a bottle of Chateau Margaux, and toast the ferocious, indomitable spirit of the French people: ‘VIVE LA FRANCE! VIVE L’ÉGALITÉ'

And then, at 11.10pm local time – at the precise moment this attack began - I’ll order a large cognac, light a cigar, and toast those intent on crushing that spirit: ‘F**K YOU, ISIS, YOU COWARDLY BASTARDS. YOU WILL NEVER WIN.’

In other words, I will continue to lead the very kind of life which so infuriates and offends them.