French media said that the truck had traversed slightly more than a mile of the promenade where people had gathered to celebrate.
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He said the scenes were very bad and Australia stood with its friends in France. Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said officials were investigating whether the driver acted alone.
The bloodshed comes eight months after Islamic State jihadist attacks on Paris nightspots left 130 people dead, which already struck a blow to tourism in one of the world’s top destinations.
French authorities are asking people in Nice to stay in place and are treating this as a likely terror attack, and French anti-terrorism police are taking the lead on the investigation.
“The driver of a van appears to have killed dozens”.
“France has been struck on the day of her national holiday. the symbol of liberty”, President Francois Hollande said in a nationally televised address in which he said a state of emergency that was scheduled to be lifted at the end of the month would be extended for three more months. That decision will need parliamentary approval. “More info to follow”, mayor Christian Estrosi wrote on Twitter.
Some witnesses have reported hearing gunshots in Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, where a vehicle reportedly just crashed into a Bastille Day crowd.
Leaders at the Asia Europe Meeting in Ulanbaatar, Mongolia, also paid tribute to the victims of the attack in Nice.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
The attack came just hours after the French president announced a state of emergency that was declared after deadly terror attacks past year would not be again extended and would come to end July 26.
President Obama issued a statement condemning the attack and saying, “We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack”.
This is not thought to be related to the Nice incident, but the result of an accident involving a truck carrying fireworks. The probe is being handled by France’s intelligence agency and judicial police.
Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP nearby, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd.
Paris-based journalist Vivienne Walt said there were reports of a second person in the truck who fled.
“Outside of my window now I see at least 10 covered bodies”, said Tony Molina, who was on vacation from California. “Heard noises, cries that I will never forget”.
Witness Ryan Hubbs said he encountered people on the street who’d lost multiple family members. He ventured out and saw bodies, blood and body parts all along the road.
“This evening, it was horror”, Allemand concluded.
The president of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur regional council, which includes Nice, said the truck was loaded with arms and grenades.
Reuters quoted local television station BFM TV as saying the local government in Nice was asking people to stay home following the incident.
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.
Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre described a horrific scene, with bodies strewn about along the roadway.
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Update: The President of the Nice region in France reported that at least 77 people were killed in the crash at a Bastille Day celebration.
