“Our people have a couple of times encountered similar tragedies and is deeply affected by the incident, sympathizes with the French people, and feels solidarity with them”, he said, adding that Russian citizens were among the victims in Nice.
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Margaret Gilmore, senior associate fellow at security think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said: “There has been no claim of responsibility yet, but certainly the working theory is that this is a terrorist attack”.
Officials say the driver of the truck is dead, and have confirmed there is no hostage situation.
Last week, Crouch was home in Texas when a sniper killed five Dallas police officers during a anti-police brutality march.
Bystander Franck Sidoli, who was visibly shocked, said: “I saw people go down”.
Passengers were ordered out of the airport, the terminal building was sealed off and military personnel were visible inside, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.
Police investigate the scene after a truck plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France, Thursday, July 14, 2016. “France is strong. France will always be stronger than the fanatics who want to strike France today”.
He listed several measures to bolster security in France after two waves of attacks a year ago that killed 147 people.
“A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a insane speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people”, he wrote in an online account.
“People were flooding the streets, just walking away from the show, and I heard a lot of loud noises and people were screaming and so to the west, a big moving truck was driving on the promenade, just barreling over people and hitting – running people over”. “I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route”.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said earlier that two Americans were killed, but didn’t identify them citing privacy.
Both presidential candidates also condemned the attacks, with Republican Donald Trump declaring “this is war” and Democrat Hillary Clinton vowing “we will not be intimidated”.
“This attack on people as they celebrated Bastille Day with friends and family on a fine summer’s evening is particularly horrendous, and my thoughts and sympathies are with the relatives of the dead and injured”. On Sunday, a tired nation had breathed a collective sigh of relief as the month-long Euro 2016 soccer tournament across France ended without a feared attack.
“Help my mother, please!” one person yells out amid a cacophony of screaming and crying.
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“Nice is a major tourist attraction in the French Riviera”.
