Nice moves mementoes for attack victims, plans online archive

PARIS (Reuters) - Authorities and volunteers in Nice have removed thousands of mementoes laid out for victims of last summer's truck rampage as the city readies for its annual carnival, its biggest public event since the Islamist attack that killed 86 people. Authorities plan to preserve some of the poems, photos and other objects draped over the bandstand at the city's seafront Promenade des Anglais and move others online as a permanent memorial. Relatives of the victims helped clear the bandstand on the eve of the 133th carnival. Last year's event attracted 240,000 visitors. "Being from Nice, being in solidarity with my town, and having two cousins who survived the tragedy, I just had to be there to preserve everything that was placed," Nice resident and volunteer Annie Piveteau told Reuters. City archivist Marin Duvigneau said the form that preservation would take was still under discussion. "We're going to partly digitise the objects, poems and photos with perhaps the idea in mind of creating a website, perhaps the idea of dedicating a publication," she said. Christian Estrosi, head of the Riviera regional government that has responsibility for Nice, said on his Twitter feed that exceptional security measures would be in place for this year's carnival. (Reporting by Reuters TV, writing by Maya Nikolaeva; editing by John Stonestreet)