The Bridget Jones's Baby star, 64, lives in the French city and was strolling along the city's Promenade des Anglais on 14 July when Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a heavy goods vehicle into a crowd celebrating France's Bastille Day holiday.

Celia had been watching the Bastille Day fireworks when the Tunisian terrorist struck, and was caught up in the crowd the attacker targeted.

"It was a miracle for me that I survived - unlike for other poor people," she tells The Guardian newspaper.

In total 86 people were killed, with hundreds more injured. France was plunged into shock and mourning in the aftermath of the attack, events which Celia saw close up.

"The dignity of the people of Nice was quite humbling," she says. "All the florists laid out flowers along the Promenade, sometimes just one lily. And then later they gathered them up, hugged them and passed them to the next person."

As well as her acclaimed acting career, Celia has also turned her hand to writing and set her 2015 novel Not Quite Nice just outside the city she has made her home. However the trauma of the attack has meant she won’t use her beloved Nice as the backdrop for another novel.

"It would have been extremely difficult to write about the tragedy - and difficult to leave it out," she explains.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who was affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation, was shot dead by French police officers.