NICE, France (AP) — The Latest on attack that killed 84 people in Nice (all times local):
5:15 p.m.
The Paris prosecutor says 202 people were wounded in the Nice truck attack, with 25 of them on life support amid the 52 in critical condition overall.
Prosecutor Francois Molins says Friday that the death toll still stood at 84 people.
Police say a Tunisian living in France drove a large truck Thursday night through crowds celebrating Bastille Day along the famed promenade in the southern French city. The slaughter ended only after police killed the armed attacker in a hail of bullets.
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5:10 p.m.
Authorities in Berlin say that two students and a teacher from a high school in the city were killed in the truck attack in Nice.
Reinhard Naumann, the mayor of Berlin’s Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district, said he was “deeply dismayed” by the death of the students and teacher from the Paula Fuerst School. The victims weren’t identified.
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5:05 p.m.
The Eiffel Tower will be lit red-white-and-blue Friday evening in honor of the Nice attack victims, according to the monument’s managers.
One of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, the Eiffel Tower is routinely lit up in various colors in solidarity with victims of extremist violence across the world.
At least 84 people were killed in Thursday night’s truck attack in Nice.
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5 p.m.
French President Francois Hollande and Provence Alpes d’Azur regional president Christian Estrosi were booed by an assembled crowd as their convoy drove through Nice following the French leader’s televised address.
Christelle Hespel says that she’s disgusted by both men — saying they’d failed to protect her city. The 38-year-old said: “Mr. Estrosi is from the right. Mr. Hollande from the left. I say it and I say it loud, these two are killers.”
Hollande’s government, whose popularity has hit record lows, has recently been buffeted by allegations that France’s intelligence services have failed to get a handle on the country’s jihadi threat.
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4:55 p.m.
Interpol is sending a response team to the French city of Nice to help identify victims and aid in the investigation into the truck attack that left at least 84 people dead.
According to the international police organization, the team will include anti-terrorism specialists.
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4:50 p.m.
An Egyptian tourist who filmed police shooting the truck driver who mowed people down in Nice says he saw the attacker firing back through a window.
Nader El Shafei says the truck ground to halt right in front of him after “smashing a girl” and leaving a trail of bodies on the Promenade des Anglais.
He told The Associated Press in an interview: “I kept waving to him, ‘Stop, stop! There are people under your truck.'”
He said the driver pulled out a gun when police closed in on the halted truck.
El Shafei said “the police started shooting. I saw the gun in his hand and I saw him shooting through the window.”
Video he filmed showed that several dozen shots were fired.
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4:40 p.m.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have interrupted their talks in Moscow in order to come to the French Embassy, lay flowers and leave messages in a book of condolences after the truck attack in Nice.
The two foreign policy chiefs arrived to the embassy late Friday afternoon with two bouquets: Lavrov carried red roses, Kerry white roses. They both left notes in the book of condolences before heading back to a Foreign Ministry mansion for a news conference that was scheduled to start three hours earlier.
Moscow residents have been leaving flowers and candles at the French Embassy since late Thursday when at least 84 people were killed in the Nice attack.
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4:15 p.m.
France’s deadly truck attack underlined how attackers are turning to an ever-expanding arsenal of weapons in attacks that are becoming harder to predict or prevent.
Europe is no stranger to attacks involving vehicles, but Thursday’s attack that killed 84 people represented one of the highest death tolls in recent history. Unlike attacks that have involved explosive-laden vehicles, the sheer weight and speed of the truck on the busy promenade appeared to have caused the high number of deaths.
Matthew Henman, managing editor at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, commented: “Using vehicles in attacks is a fairly well-established tactic with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.”
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4 p.m.
German tourist Richard Gutjahr says he could hear angry shouts outside and see a big white truck rolling slowly down a road supposed to be blocked off as a party zone. He picked up his camera — and captured a key moment in the terrible path of the Nice attack.
Gutjahr’s footage, filmed from a first-floor hotel balcony, shows the truck chased by police officers. An unidentified motorcyclist pulls alongside the truck, leaps off his vehicle and clings to the door of the truck in a bid to stop the attacker. The motorcycle is partly crushed under the truck’s tires as the motorcyclist, possibly a police officer, clings on and Gutjahr sees two other officers on foot take aim and fire individual shots at the truck’s windscreen.
Gutjahr said in a telephone interview: “I thought it could either be a drunk driver or a terror attack, until that incredibly brave man jumped on the truck.”
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3:40 p.m.
Several neighbors at the address listed for the man identified as the truck driver who killed dozens of people in Nice say said police officers raided the 12th floor apartment earlier Friday — but that the man had not lived there in three years. The apartment was occupied by the man’s estranged wife, who was led away by authorities, three of the neighbors said. The apartment showed visible signs of having been forced in, including a hole where the lock had been.
Four young men inside the apartment told The Associated Press they were family of the wife, who they said was divorcing her husband.
The family members and the neighbors refused to identify themselves.
— By Philippe Sotto
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3:25 p.m.
French President Francois Hollande says the truck attack was done “to satisfy the cruelty of an individual, and maybe a group.”
Speaking after visiting the hospital where victims were treated, he also said that France was “facing a struggle which will be long.”
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3:10 p.m.
Speaking after a visit to a hospital in Nice, French President Francois Hollande said that some 50 people were between life and death following a gruesome truck attack that has already killed 84 people.
Hollande, looking somber and flanked by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, said that “it’s to hit France that this individual committed this terrorist act.”
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3:00 p.m.
Relatives say a father and son from Texas are among the victims of the deadly truck attack in Nice.
Family friend Jess Davis says 51-year-old Sean Copeland and his 11-year-old son Brodie were killed Thursday evening in what French authorities have described as a terror attack.
Davis released a statement Friday on behalf of the Copeland family, saying they are “heartbroken and in shock.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby said earlier that two Americans were killed, but didn’t identify them citing privacy.
Davis says the Copelands, from Lakeway, were on a European vacation that began in Spain.
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2:40 p.m.
Morocco’s consulate in Marseille has told The Associated Press that at least 2 Moroccans were among the victims of the attack in Nice.
The consulate said that a woman and her son died in the massacre that killed at least 84 — many of whom had been watching the fireworks on France’s Bastille Day.
The consulate did not release names of the victims.
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2:35 p.m.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi says the pain of the attack in Nice was made worse because so many children were killed and maimed on France’s national holiday.
In a Facebook post, Enzi wrote: “We’re used to seeing postcards from Nice full of beauty, not images of death with a doll near a destroyed stroller. Reacting is a moral duty.”
Italy has told its local prefects and police chiefs to reassess security measures and reinforce “sensitive targets.”
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2:30 p.m.
An Associated Press reporter says the alert at Nice airport has been lifted, with passengers who had been evacuated being allowed back into the terminal to pick up their bags.
The airport’s website showed flights leaving and landing as usual. In a message posted to the site’s home page, the airport said: “Despite the dreadful events that occurred, access to the airport and Air traffic won’t be disrupted.”
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2:15 p.m.
Poland’s interior minister is blaming the attack in Nice on the values of multiculturalism and political correctness promoted by European Union leaders like foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Mariusz Blaszczak, interior minister in a right-wing government, said: “We must reject political correctness and call things by their true names. Rather than shedding tears like Mogherini and … organizing marches that solve nothing, authorities should ensure the safety of citizens.”
In an interview on Polsat News, he said the attack in Nice is the consequence of many years of “multi-culti policies and political correctness. This is how it ends.”
He added: “We don’t have such problems. We don’t have districts where law other than Polish law reigns. We don’t have no-go zones for police.” He also praised his party, Law and Justice, for standing firm against accepting migrants.
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2:10 p.m.
Two French officials say the man who carried out the truck attack in Nice was a Tunisian living in the city. The officials, who could not speak publicly about the investigation, confirmed that the ID found in the truck matched the dead attacker.
They said the man was living legally in France. Tunisia is a former French colony.
— By Lori Hinnant
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2:00 p.m.
Passengers have been ordered out of Nice Airport, an Associated Press reporter at the scene says. She said the terminal building has been sealed off and that military personnel are visible inside.
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1:40 p.m.
Spain says it is maintaining its national security alert at one step below maximum following the Nice attack but has stepped up police controls in transport centers such as airports, tourism sites and places where large numbers of people gather.
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said Spain and France had agreed to continue enforcing tighter police controls at border crossings that were introduced for the recent European football championship and the Tour de France.
Speaking after meeting with Spanish police officials and political party representatives, he said maximum alert level five would be applied only if security officials unanimously felt a terror attack was imminent.
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1:30 p.m.
The foreign ministries of Armenia, Ukraine and Switzerland are reporting one of their citizens killed in Nice.
Armenian officials first reported two deaths, but later said just one death was confirmed.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says one Ukrainian was killed but the ministry would not identify the victim citing the family’s right to privacy. Two Ukrainians were injured.
Switzerland’s foreign ministry says a Swiss woman was killed, but declined to provide further details for privacy reasons.
1:20 p.m.
Italy has told all local prefects and police chiefs to reassess security measures and reinforce all “sensitive targets” following the Nice attack.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Friday that at a national level, Italy’s security alert remained at the second-highest level, just under that of being under actual attack.
Alfano recalled that the Islamic State group as far back as 2014 had urged sympathizers to employ “car jihad” to attack the West. He said that Italy had taken note, for example, and closed to traffic the main boulevard leading to the Vatican during Pope Francis’ Holy Year, precisely to limit risks to big gatherings of pedestrians.
At a press conference after convening his anti-terror agency chiefs, Alfano said the monitoring of Italy’s prisons in the hours after the Nice carnage showed no evidence of sympathy or support among Muslim inmates, unlike previous attacks.
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12:55 p.m.
French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls have both arrived in Nice by plane.
The pair posed with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on the airport tarmac in a show of solidarity.
The three politicians met with security officials before driving off.
Cazeneuve, who’s said that “we are at war with terrorists,” was the first to travel to the scene of the massacre that left at least 84 dead.
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12:45 p.m.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has condemned the Nice attack and called for a “redoubling” of efforts to defeat violent extremists.
The new prime minister called the attack “horrifying” and said: “We must redouble our efforts to defeat these brutal murderers who want to destroy our way of life.”
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it is believed that a Briton was injured in the attack. Foreign Office officials say they have not yet confirmed that report.
12:40 p.m.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby says two Americans were among those killed in Nice on Thursday when a large truck plowed through a crowd gathered for fireworks.
Kirby didn’t identify the individuals by name, citing privacy concerns.
He says the U.S. is providing assistance to those affected by the attack, while the embassy tries to account for all Americans in the Mediterranean city.
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12:20 p.m.
Two French police officials say identity papers found alongside the attacker behind a killing spree in southeastern Nice belonged to a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian descent with previous misdemeanor convictions but no known link to extremist groups.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said Friday that the papers were those of Nice resident. They cautioned that DNA and identity checks with acquaintances were pending to fully verify the identity.
The suspect died in a shootout with police after mowing down dozens of people with a truck on Nice’s seaside Promenade des Anglais during national Bastille Day revelry Thursday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment.
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11:55 a.m.
Czech police say they are increasing security as a precaution following the truck attack in Nice.
Tomas Tuhy, the country’s top police officer says security has been boosted at Prague’s and other international airports, train stations and other places where sports and cultural events take place.
The Foreign Ministry says no Czechs are among the dead, but one Czech woman suffered a light injury in the attack.
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11:40 a.m.
Estonia’s Foreign Ministry says two Estonian nationals were injured in the Nice attack and it is trying to reach other Estonians believed to be in the area. It did not identify the injured or give further details.
Meanwhile, Estonian state-owned airline Nordica says it’s offering passengers with tickets to Nice for July to change their flight plans.
Nordica CEO Jaan Tamm says customers who have flown to Nice will be allowed to return on earlier return flights if seats are available. Passengers booked to fly to Nice this month will be allowed to change the time of their departure or change the destination to the Croatian cities of Split or Rijeka, or Odessa in Ukraine until the end of the summer season free of charge.
Two Estonian mobile operators said they would allow clients to make free mobile calls from France and receive calls there free of charge for the next two days.
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11:35 a.m.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan says London will review its security procedures because of the attack in Nice.
The mayor said he wants to reassure all London residents that the Metropolitan Police will do “everything possible” to keep the British capital safe. He said the extremists’ “poisonous and twisted ideology” will be defeated in France, London and other parts of the world.
The terror threat in Britain is judged to be “severe,” meaning that an attack is highly likely.
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11:15 a.m.
Belgium’s prime minister says next week’s national holiday celebrations will go ahead, but with additional security measures.
Charles Michel spoke to journalists following a morning meeting of the Belgian’s government’s Security Council following the lethal truck attack in Nice, France.
Michel says Belgian authorities had already considered the possibility of a terrorist using a vehicle to attack a crowd. He says additional “appropriate measures,” which he did not specify, will now be taken to safeguard events scheduled to mark National Day on July 21.
OCAM, an independent body that assesses the risk of an extremist attack in Belgium, is maintaining the threat level at 3 on a 4-point scale, Michel said. For the level to be raised to the maximum, he says, there must be “concrete and precise” information about an imminent attack, which he said there was none at present.
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11:05 a.m.
German police say they’re stepping up border checks on the French frontier following the attack in Nice.
Federal police said Thursday that they had increased checks at land borders and railway crossings with France, and at airports.
They would not give further details, but said the move was made in consultation with France.
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10:55 a.m.
The children’s hospital in Nice says it has treated some 50 children and adolescents injured in the truck attack, including two who died during or after surgery.
Stephanie Simpson, the communications director for the Lenval foundation hospital, tells The Associated Press that injuries included fractures and head injuries and that the victims were aged 18 or under.
In a phone interview, she said: “Some are still life and death.”
She said she could not say exact number of children hospitalized or the ages of those who died.
The hospital is also offering psychological counselling to parents and siblings.
The hospital, equipped with one of France’s largest pediatric emergency units, also called the families of children it was already treating before the attack to ask them to pick up their children to free up rooms for the attack victims.
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10:40 a.m.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the government is declaring three days of national mourning after the attack in Nice that left at least 84 people dead. Speaking after an emergency meeting, Valls said the national mourning would begin Saturday.
He confirmed that a measure extending the country’s state of emergency would go before lawmakers next week.
Valls and French President Francois Hollande were going to Nice later Friday.
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10:10 a.m.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has cut short a visit to Mongolia to return to Paris because of the Nice attack.
A foreign ministry spokesman says Ayrault was in Mongolia for the Asia-Europe summit and is expected back late Friday.
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9:55 a.m.
Germany’s top security official says the attack in Nice is “incomprehensible and simply awful,” and that “this barbaric murder must be finally brought to an end.”
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday he was shocked by the news of the attack and that his thoughts were with the victims and their family.
De Maiziere says “our friendship with the French people will become even deeper in mourning, anger and determination.”
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9:50 a.m.
Belgium’s prime minister said he’s convening a meeting of the National Security Council Friday in the wake of the Nice attack, to make sure adequate security measures are in place for Belgium’s national holiday next week.
“We have already taken a certain number of steps in connection with preparations for July 21, as you can imagine, and our security services are permanently evaluating the measures that are necessary,” Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister, said in a radio interview. “It’s certain that our security services are going to include information resulting from this act committed last night in Nice in their analyses.”
On March 22, suicide bombers killed 32 victims in the Brussels Airport and subway. The Belgian capital was also home to many of the attackers who killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.
Both of those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.
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9:40 a.m.
A lawmaker for the region that includes Nice said some people tried to escape the attack by going into the sea, giving new details of the horrifying last minutes of the attack in Nice.
“A person jumped onto the truck to try to stop it,” Eric Ciotti told Europe 1 radio. “It’s at that moment that the police were able to neutralize this terrorist. I won’t forget the look of this policewoman who intercepted the killer.”
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9:30 a.m.
Christian Estrosi, the regional president in Nice, said some of the city’s 1,200 security cameras had pinpointed the moment the attacker boarded the truck, far from the seaside “in the hills of Nice” and could follow his path to the promenade. Estrosi called for the investigation to focus on any accomplices.
“Attacks aren’t prepared alone. Attacks are prepared with accomplices,” Estrosi said. “There is a chain of complicity. I expect it to be unveiled, discovered and kept up to date.”
Estrosi said more than 10 children were among the dead and he said France needed to think carefully about its next response to attacks, as previous responses were not enough to protect the people.
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9:20 a.m.
Russian news agencies on Friday quoted Irina Tyurina, spokeswoman for the Russian Union of Travel Industry, saying that a Russian woman was killed and her friend hurt in the Nice attack. Tyurina said she got the information from insurance agencies.
“Two friends from Russia were taking a walk on the Promenade des Anglais. One was killed by the truck, the other lightly injured, she’s got broken toes and some other minor injuries,” Tyurina said.
Thousands of Russian tourists are estimated to be holidaymaking in Nice.
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8:50 a.m.
Tour de France riders including race leader Chris Froome sent messages of support to the victims of the deadly attack in Nice, although organizers did not immediately say whether cycling’s showpiece event will continue as planned.
Froome posted a picture of the blue, white and red French flag on Twitter and wrote: “Thoughts are with those affected by the horrific terror attack in Nice.”
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8:30 a.m.
The city of Marseille has canceled its fireworks show on Friday. The seaside city, not far from Nice and one of France’s largest, announced the cancellation after an attack on Nice’s waterfront promenade left at least 84 people dead.
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8 a.m.
The French Interior Ministry has raised the death toll to 84 from the attack on people celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice. The additional four deaths were apparently from the 18 people who were seriously injured when a truck slammed into the crowds. Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said extra medical-legal police were being sent to Nice to speed the identification process so bodies can be returned to families.
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7:50 a.m.
France, hit with two waves of attacks last year that killed 147 people, has long known it is a top target for the Islamic State group. In September 2014, then-spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani referred to “the filthy French” in a statement telling Muslims within the country to attack them in any way they could, including “crush them with your car.”
The message was not limited to France. It addressed “disbelieving Americans or Europeans — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian or a Canadian.”
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NICE, France (AP) — A truck loaded with weapons and hand grenades drove onto a sidewalk for more than a mile, plowing through Bastille Day revelers who’d gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city of Nice late Thursday. At least 80 people were killed before police killed the driver, authorities said.
Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre described a horrific scene, with bodies strewn along the roadway, and Sylvie Toffin, a press officer with the local prefecture, said the truck ran over people on a “long trip” down the sidewalk near Nice’s Palais de la Mediterranee, a building that fronts the beach.
Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP nearby, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd. “There was carnage on the road,” he said. “Bodies everywhere.” He said the driver emerged with a gun and started shooting.
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 80 people were killed, including children, and 18 were in critical condition, and the Paris prosecutor’s office announced an investigation for “murder, attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise.”
“We are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way,” Cazeneuve said.
The ranking politician of the Alpes-Maritime department that includes Nice said the truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). Many of those on the ground were in shorts and other summer clothing.
Eric Ciotti said on BFM TV that police killed the driver “apparently after an exchange of gunfire.”
The president of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur regional council, which includes Nice, said the truck was loaded with arms and grenades. Christian Estrosi told BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him.”
Images being broadcast across French media showed revelers running for their lives down Nice’s palm tree-lined Promenade des Anglais, the famous seaside boulevard named for the English aristocrats who proposed its construction in the 19th century.
Video footage showed men and women — one or two pushing strollers — racing to get away from the scenes. And, in what appeared to be evidence of a gun battle, photos showed a truck with at least half a dozen bullet holes punched through its windshield.
It was not immediately clear who would have been behind an attack, but France has recently seen a spate of dramatic assaults by jihadist groups, including the Islamic State group which straddles Iraq and Syria.
President Francois Hollande said in a televised statement that all of France was under an “Islamist terrorist threat” and extended by three months a state of emergency that has been in place since the November attacks that killed 130 in Paris was to end July 26. The decision needs parliamentary approval.
“The terrorist character (of the attack) cannot be denied,” he said.
Hollande said he was calling a defense council meeting Friday that brings together defense, interior and other key ministers, then heading to Nice. He listed several measures to bolster security in France after two waves of attacks last year that killed 147 people. Besides continuation of the state of emergency and the Sentinel operation with 10,000 soldiers on patrol, he said he was calling up “operational reserves,” those who have served in the past and will be brought in to help police, particularly at French borders.
President Barack Obama condemned what he said “appears to be a horrific terrorist attack.”
European Council president Donald Tusk said it was a “tragic paradox” that the victims of the attack in Nice were celebrating “liberty, equality and fraternity” — France’s motto — on the country’s national day.
Writing online, Nice Matin journalist Damien Allemand who was at the waterside said the fireworks display had finished and the crowd had got up to leave when they heard a noise and cries.
“A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people,” he said.
“I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget.”
Graphic footage showed a scene of horror up and down the Promenade, with broken bodies splayed out on the asphalt, some of them piled near one another, others bleeding out onto the roadway or twisted into unnatural shapes.
“Help my mother, please!” one person yells out amid a cacophony of screaming and crying. A pink girl’s bicycle is briefly seen overturned by the side of the road.
The origin and authenticity of the footage could not immediately be verified.
Kayla Repan, of Boca Raton, Florida, was among the hundreds gathered on the promenade to watch fireworks.
“The whole city was running. I got extremely frightened and ran away from the promenade,” she said. “It was chaos.”
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(Photo Source: AP)
