At least 18 people remain in critical condition and the death toll grew through the night.
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At least 84 people died, including 10 children, after a man identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove the vehicle into the crowd in a suspected terror attack. According to a government official, police found guns and explosives in the back of the truck, NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports.
“Help my mother, please!” one person yells out amid a cacophony of screaming and crying.
Thomas Daigle, a reporter for Canadian network CBC News, tweeted: ‘Security crews are suddenly ordering passengers at Nice airport away from baggage claim area.
The ranking politician of the Alpes-Maritime department that includes Nice said the truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles), killing 75 people and wounding 50.
The driver was a Nice resident, according to the Nice Matin newspaper.
Estrosi, who has warned in the past of a fifth column of “Islamo-fascists” operating in France, happened to write to President Francois Hollande on the eve of the massacre demanding more funds for police.
Eric Ciotti said on BFM TV that police killed the driver “apparently after an exchange of gunfire”.
French news agencies said the man had not been known to intelligence agencies, but had a record for petty crime.
It was not immediately clear who would have been behind an attack, but France has recently seen a spate of dramatic assaults from by jihadist groups, including the Islamic State group which straddles Iraq and Syria. French authorities had not opened a counter-terrorism surveillance file on him and he was not known to them for jihadism or Islamist extremism.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is being kept updated on reports coming in from Nice”.
A state of emergency, which was imposed following the Paris attacks and was due to end on July 26 has now been extended for another three months. “We are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way”, he said.
Police were reported by French media to be investigating whether the driver had acted alone, or with accomplices.
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Pictures and footage shown on social media showed crowds fleeing in terror from the scene on the Promenade des Anglais, which was busy with revellers celebrating and watching fireworks.
