Initial reports suggested that the perpetrator acted alone, but the cache of weapons in the back of the truck has since lead authorities to believe a larger terrorist attack may have been planned.
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Armed French police shot the gunman dead.
President Barack Obama condemned what he said “appears to be a horrific terrorist attack”.
France was rocked by a devastating terrorist attack in November, when heavily armed suicide bombers killed 130 people in several places around Paris. On Sunday, France had breathed a sigh of relief as the month-long Euro 2016 soccer tournament ended without a feared attack.
Rihanna’s concert Friday in Nice, France has been canceled after a truck drove into a Bastille Day crowd, killing at least 77 people.
“It’s an attack”, she said.
Brazilian President Michel Temer tweeted: “It is regrettable that on the day [that] eternalized fraternity as the motto of the French people, an attack destroyed the lives of so many citizens”.
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said on Twitter the truck “seems to have killed dozens of people”.
The Australian Embassy in Paris is making urgent enquiries to determine whether any Australians have been affected by the incident at the Bastille Day celebration in Nice, France.
The driver was fatally shot by French police.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said 80 people are now known to have died and 18 people are in critical condition.
The president of the region that includes Nice said the truck was loaded with arms and grenades and the driver was killed by police.
“My eldest son was yelling at us, ‘why have you brought me here, I’m never coming here again'”. Hollande had been in the southern city of Avignon on a private visit.
France TV Info reported a local police official said dozens were killed and more than 100 were injured in what was described as a potential attack. The truck struck and killed those who were in the way.
“I walked to the beginning and saw a lot of people around their families – a lot of single dead bodies with no one around them”, Violet said. The witness said he saw only the driver.
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Graphic footage showed a scene of horror up and down the Promenade, with broken bodies splayed out on the asphalt, some of them piled near one another, others bleeding out onto the roadway or twisted into unnatural shapes.
