Numerous others have been wounded, he said after traveling to the scene.
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“All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism”.
Eighty were killed, a French interior minister. He said he will present the plan to extend the state of emergency to parliament next week. Hollande said Friday that 20 people were in critical condition.
Nearly exactly eight months ago Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris on November 13, the bloodiest in a number of attacks in France and Belgium in the past two years. The decision needs parliamentary approval.
No cause for the attack is yet clear, but the mayor of Nice has confirmed that the truck carried weapons and grenades.
“We, the Malaysian students in France, are truly devastated to learn about the recent attack in Nice on Bastille Day”.
Obama says, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved-ones of those killed”.
President Barack Obama condemned the attack and offered any assistance needed to investigate and catch the people responsible.
France’s ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, characterized the events in Nice as a “terrorist attack”. The attack took place after fireworks display on Bastille Day, a French national holiday, officials have said.
CNN’s Becky Anderson reported that police opened fire on the truck trying to stop it in its tracks, according to French radio stations. Anti-terror prosecutors have taken over the investigation, according to BFMTV, citing the prosecutor’s office.
As the white tractor-trailer drove into the crowd it was “mowing bodies over”, said an American witness standing 15 feet away from the scene.
“I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget”.
“This evening, it was horror”, Allemand concluded.
Local government leader Christian Estrosi put the death toll at 77, while BFM TV later put it at 80.
Estrosi said the truck was drivien by someone who appeared to have “completely premeditated behavior”.
Nice-Matin posted photographs of the truck, its windshield starred by a score of bullets and its radiator grille destroyed.
Military personnel have already rushed to the scene, and Hollande said that he would deploy more reserves and guards to deal with the emergency situation.
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Prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said the lorry drove 2km (1.2 miles) through a large crowd, the AFP news agency reports.
