A gunman at the wheel of a 25-tonne heavy truck zigzagged along the seafront Promenade des Anglais as a fireworks display marking the French national day ended just after 10:30 p.m. (04:30 p.m. EDT) ran into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice on Thursday, leaving at least 84 people dead and 18 others in critical condition. President Francois Hollande called a terrorist act.
The attacker has been identified by the police source as a 31-year-old Tunisian-born Frenchman, also opened fire before police shot him dead. He had been known to the police for common crimes but not to the intelligence services.
The truck, a rental vehicle according to local officials, was still where it came to rest, its windscreen riddled with bullets.
Only hours earlier Hollande had announced the state of emergency would be lifted by the end of July, but the president said that following the attack, in which many children were killed, it would now be extended by three months.
"France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy," he said. "There's no denying the terrorist nature of this attack of yet again the most extreme form of violence."
This attack came eight months and a day after Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers hit Paris on a festive Friday evening.
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