Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said 84 people were killed and scores injured, including 18 in “critical condition”.
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The driver also opened fire before police shot him dead. “All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism”, Hollande said.
France has the largest Islamic community in Europe, with 7.5 per cent of the population Muslim, many of north African heritage who feel they are not treated equally.
Always the first with your local news. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “murder and attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise”.
In the wake of the terror attack that left more than 80 people dead in Nice last night, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has issued an urgent call to prayer. “You can see wreckage all along the way, a body, bicycles, street lamps and debris everywhere”, he said.
BREAKING: Reports of multiple casualties in #Nice #France after a truck is driven into a crowd.
Greg Clark, MP for Tunbridge Wells and newly-appointed secretary of business, energy and industrial strategy, said: “Heart-rending events in Nice”.
French soldiers stand guard by the sealed off area 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.
Police killed the driver “apparently after an exchange of gunfire, ” Eric Ciotti, the ranking politician of the Alpes-Maritime department that includes Nice, told BFM television.
“There was a lot of confusion, misdirection, because we didn’t know what exactly was happening, why it was happening”.
Witnesses say the driver was zigzagging to ensure he hit as many people as possible during the attack.
Video footage showed men and women – one or two pushing strollers – racing to get away from the scenes.
Eyewitnesses reported hearing gunshots and pictures on social media showed armed police with weapons trained on a badly damaged white lorry with bullet holes in the windscreen.
Hollande added that he will travel to Nice on Friday once he has chaired a meeting of the Security and Defense Council.
Christian Estrosi, the regional president in Nice, said at least 10 children were among the dead, and the death toll is expected to rise.
Hollande had announced hours earlier that France would be ending a state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 attacks.
France would, nonetheless, continue military operations in Syria and Iraq.
French president Francois Hollande said, “We can not deny that it was a terrorist attack”.
“People were celebrating and it was so peaceful, it was a festivity vibe, it was right after the fireworks that the truck came and ran over people”, Maryam Violet, an Iranian journalist visiting Nice, told the Guardian.
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“I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route”.
