An attacker killed more than 80 people and injured many others when he drove a heavy truck at high speed into a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice late on Thursday, officials said. The attack, which came eight months after Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in Paris.
Here are the latest updates:
11.25 am: France, hit with two waves of attacks in 2015 that killed 147 people, has long known it is a top target for the Islamic State group. In September 2014, then-spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani referred to “the filthy French” in a statement telling Muslims within the country to attack them in any way they could, including “crush them with your car.”
The message was not limited to France. It addressed “disbelieving Americans or Europeans especially the spiteful and filthy French or an Australian or a Canadian.”
11 am: The attack in Nice has left 84 dead and another 18 in a “critical condition”, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.
10.45 am: Nice truck attacker was known to French police for common law crimes, but not to intelligence services, Reuters reports citing a police source.
10.20 am: Here is what we know about what French President Francois Hollande has declared an “undeniable” terrorist attack.
9.50 am: AFP reports: President of the Nice region Christian Estrosi says that the truck driver fired a pistol several times before being shot dead by police.
“At the moment that he was shot dead by police, he had fired several times,” Mr. Estrosi said.
A source close to the investigation said an “inactive” grenade was found inside the 19-tonne truck, as well as “several fake rifles”.
Regional lawmaker Eric Ciotti described “terrifying images, a scene of absolute horror, with many children among the dead”.
“Families who were sharing a moment of leisure were targeted. It was a symbolic day in a symbolic place. That… motivated the attack,” he said.
9.40 am: President Pranab Mukherjee strongly condemns terrorist attack in France
9.35 am: The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the “barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack” that took place during Bastille Day celebrations in the French city of Nice, AFP reports.
9.30 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemns deadly attack terming it as a “mindless act of violence”.
9.10 am: “We have offered any assistance that they may need to investigate this attack and bring those responsible to justice. We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack,” Obama says.
9.00 am: U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemns, says it appears to be a “horrific terrorist attack”. Read more
8.45 am: “Our Ambassador in Paris is in touch with the Indian community in Nice. So far no report of any Indians affected,” External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweets.
8.30 am: No Indian is reported to be affected. MEA says the Indian embassy in Paris had opened the helpline number 33—1—40507070.
8.00 am: “European and Asian leaders pay respect to victims of Nice attack. We stand united against violence and hatred,” European Council president Donald Tusk tweets. Read more
7.45 am: The state of emergency imposed since a previous attack on Paris last November to be extended for another three months, says Hollande.
7.00 am: The official says weapons and grenades were found inside the 25-tonne, unmarked truck.
6.30 am: “Tragic paradox that the subject of Nice attack was the people celebrating liberty, equality and fraternity,” European Council President Donald Tusk tweets.
6.30 am: BFM TV says 80 people killed in the attack.
6.00 am: French President Francois Hollande says Thursday’s lethal attack on the southern city of Nice was clearly a terrorist assault.
5.45 am: French President Francois Hollande says at least 77 people were killed in an attack.
5.50 am: Counter-terrorist investigators seeking to identify the driver, who a local government official says opened fire before police shot him dead.
5.30 am: “Neither the place nor the date are coincidental,” a former French intelligence agent and security consultant, Claude Moniquet, tells France-Info.
5.00 am: “The lorry came zig-zagging along the street. We ran into a hotel and hid in the toilets with lots of people,” a woman tells France Info that she and others fled in terror.
4.45 am: Police denies rumours on social media of a subsequent hostage-taking in Nice.
4.30 am: An Interior Ministry spokesman says “several dozen” died. Nice-Matin says 42 people are in critical condition and many others injured.
4.20 am: Local government leader Christian Estrosi put the death toll at 77.
4.10 am: “It’s a scene of horror,” a local member of parliament, Eric Ciotti, says the France Info radio. He says, the truck had “mown down several hundred people.”
4.05 am: “I saw people go down,” says bystander Franck Sidoli, who is visibly shocked. Reuters
4.00 am: President Francois Hollande, who raced back to Paris from the south of France after the attack, was due to address a sleepless nation on television at 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT). Hours earlier, in a traditional Bastille Day interview, he had said an eight-month state of emergency might end in two weeks time.
3.45 am: An AFP reporter describes seeing a white van driving at high speed onto the famed Promenade des Anglais as people were leaving after the annual Bastille Day celebration display. “We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around,” he says.
3.40 am: Police and ambulances rush to the scene and authorities from the local Alpes-Maritimes prefecture urge residents to stay indoors.
3.35 am: The truck rammed into the crowd on the Promenade des Anglais seaside walk in the centre of town, regional newspaper Nice Matin reported, citing its own reporter at the scene.
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