NICE, France --Up to 80 people were killed when a truck plowed into a crowd watching a Bastille Day fireworks display in the southern French resort of Nice late Thursday.
French President Francois Hollande, in a televised address, said "several children" were among the dead as he extended the state of emergency in the country for three months, stressing the "terrorist nature" of the attack was "undeniable."
The latest death toll, which had steadily risen since the original estimate of 60, was given by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve who also said 18 of the estimated hundred injured were in a "critical condition."
Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said the truck drove two kilometers through a large crowd that was watching the fireworks.
The driver had also opened fire on the crowd, local government chief Christian Estrosi told BFM TV, and weapons and grenades were found inside the truck after he was killed.
If confirmed as an act of terror, the incident will be the third major attack on French soil in 18 months -- with several smaller-scale jihadist killings also having taken place.
Identity papers belonging to a 31-year-old French-Tunisian were found inside the truck, a police source said.
"The identification of the truck driver is still underway," said the source. The identity papers indicate the man is a resident of Nice.
The French government denied there was a hostage-taking incident after the attack.
"There is no hostage-taking," interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told AFP, denying dozens of rumors following the incident. "An individual drove a truck into the crowd. He was killed by police."
"Investigations are currently under way to establish if the individual acted alone or if he had accomplices who might have fled," Brandet said.
Anti-terrorism investigators have taken over the probe, prosecutors said.
Sub-prefect Sebastien Humbert described the incident as a clear criminal attack, although the driver was not yet identified. Residents of the Mediterranean city close to the Italian border were advised to stay indoors. There was no sign of any other attack.
"Dear Nicois," local mayor Christian Estrosi tweeted, "The driver of a truck appears to have killed dozens of people. Stay at home for the time being. More news to follow."
The incident comes as France remains badly shaken by November 2015 attacks which killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and nightspots across the city.
An AFP reporter described seeing a white truck driving at high speed onto the famed Promenade des Anglais as people were leaving.
"We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around," he said.
Terrified pedestrians screamed as they fled the area. "It was absolute chaos," he added.
Regional newspaper Nice Matin quoted its reporter at the scene saying there were many injured people and blood on the street. It published a photograph of a damaged, long-distance delivery truck, which it said was riddled with bullets and images of emergency services treating the injured.
Damien Allemand, the paper's correspondent, was quoted as saying: "People are running. It's panic. He rode up onto the Prom and piled into the crowd ... There are people covered in blood. There must be many injured."
Social media carried images of people lying apparently lifeless in pools of blood.
US President Barack Obama condemned "what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack", although no group had claimed responsibility for the incident.
US government agencies have received constant reports of Islamic State threats to attack France and those threats are regarded as current, a US security official said. However, two US officials said they had no information at this point about whether militants were involved in the Nice incident.
CNN said it has spoken to a witness, identified as an American pilot, who saw the truck ramming the crowd. The witness said the driver mowed people down, accelerating as he hit them. The witness said there was only one person in the truck.
Local mayor Estrosi has warned in the past of the risk of Islamist attacks in the region, following Islamic State bloodshed in Paris and Brussels over the past 18 months.
French President Francois Hollande, who was in the south of France at the time, had hours earlier said a state of emergency put in place after the Paris attacks in November would not be extended when it was due to expire on July 26.
"We can't extend the state of emergency indefinitely, it would make no sense. That would mean we're no longer a republic with the rule of law applied in all circumstances," Hollande told journalists in a traditional Bastille Day interview.
source: interaksyon.com
