Prosecutor wants Paris Match pulled from stands over Nice attack photos

It asked the court "to order the withdrawal from sale" of the weekly news magazine, which came out Thursday, and "ban publication in all formats, notably digital", of the issue, which has angered the victims' families.

Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, also denounced the publication of what he called "abject" pictures that "would bring back pain for families."

Later on Thursday a judge ordered the magazine not to republish the photos, including online, but did not demand that they be removed from newsstands.

In its ruling, the court said that the victims were identifiable by their clothing and that the images capturing the truck as it moved down the Promenade des Anglais provided "nothing new to the public's right to legitimate information about the events", according to a portion of the decision tweeted by a lawyer for a victims' group.

Paris Match editor-in-chief Olivier Royant defended the decision to publish the surveillance camera images, saying that the magazine "wanted to honour the victims" and that there was a "duty to remember, so that society won't forget".

"The photos of the truck from that night have been widely published by other media outlets in the past year ... they are distant shots in which none of the victims can be identified, and they don't infringe upon their dignity" in contravention of French law, he said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)