Nice: A gunman, believed to be a terrorist, killed 80 people and injured many when he drove a heavy truck at high speed into a crowd that had watched Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice late on Thursday, officials said.
France’s Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 80 people died and 18 were in a critical condition. Many more were injured in the terror attack along the famed seafront Promenade des Anglais as the fireworks ended just after 10:30pm (2030 GMT).
The driver also opened fire before he was shot dead by police.
“At the moment that he was shot dead by police, he had fired several times,” said president of the region Christian Estrosi.
Identity papers belonging to a 31-year-old French-Tunisian citizen were reportedly found in the 19-tonne truck. The truck was riddled with bullet holes and badly damaged, with burst tyres.
“France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy,” President Francois Hollande said, noting several children were among the dead in what he said he had no doubt was an act of terrorism.
Hollande called the carnage, which came as France celebrated the anniversary of the 1789 revolutionary storming of the Bastille, an attack on liberty by fanatics who despised human rights.