State Department Spokesman John Kirby did not identify the names of the individuals, citing privacy concerns. The assault on revelers in the southern French city rocked a nation still dealing with the aftermath of two attacks in Paris previous year that killed 147 people and were claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.
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May, who took over as prime minister on Wednesday with the job of steering Britain out of the European Union, said her deputy national security adviser would chair the review.
France has lived with soldiers in the streets since the November 13 attacks in Paris, and much of the country experienced increased security during the monthlong European football championship that concluded July 10.
She said it took a few seconds to register that the truck, which she saw veer onto the street at about 25 miles per hour “barreling people”, was intentionally mowing down the crowd.
Her husband Tony said they saw at least 10 dead bodies, strewn on the street.
He said he chose to express Russia’s condolences in a public address because he believes that the French leadership, including President Francois Hollande, are too busy at the moment to spend time talking to him on the phone.
Boris Johnson, in his first day as Foreign Secretary, said one Brit has been injured and couldn’t rule out the toll rising. Two Chinese citizens were injured as well, the Chinese consulate in Marseille told CNN.
He said that the day is a “symbol of liberty”, and that “human rights are denied by fanatics and France is quite clearly their target”.
Hollande called a defense council meeting Friday with key ministers, and will head to Nice after that. Parliament will study the bill for two days, he told reporters. The state of emergency was due to expire later this month.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop urged Australians to exercise vigilance in France: “We continue to advise Australians to exercise a high degree of caution in France”, she said.
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.
Police officers and soldiers block the access to the scene of an attack after a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of revelers who’d gathered to watch the fireworks in the French resort city of Nice, southern France, Friday, July 15, 2016.
Speaking on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio One, he said: “We were walking down the prom, heard a bit of noise behind us, turned around, the lorry was driving along the promenade and we were kind of like ‘shit, there is a lorry on the promenade, why isn’t it stopping?'” “There was carnage on the road”, he said.
“He’s really shaken”, she said. “It happened so fast, it was like in slow motion”. “All of a sudden, just people, thousands of people, started running in one direction”. “We are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way”, he said.
A tourist from Dallas, Kristen Crouch, lamented the climate of violence that spans the globe, from her hometown to the French city, which she was visiting for a friend’s wedding.
“It’s really sad when you’ve been marked safe twice on Facebook in the last week. We shouldn’t live in a world like that”, she said.
“We saw a child stroller or pram that had been run over, and later when we were allowed to go back to our hotel we saw bodies all over the floor and honestly couldn’t tell which were adults or children”.
At Nice’s Pasteur hospital, medical staff were treating large numbers of injuries.
Trump, who postponed plans to announce his vice presidential pick because of the attacks, said “this is war”.
“I work there”, he said”.
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Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia issued its own statement condemning the “heinous terrorist” act, adding that it stands in “solidarity” with France and will “cooperate with it in confronting terrorist acts in all their forms”. Police say an ID found with the driver belongs to a French man of Tunisian descent, with a petty criminal record, The Associated reports. The driver was a Nice resident, according to the Nice Matin newspaper.
