Dozens killed in Nice, France

UPDATE (7/15, 12:10 p.m.): The truck attack in Nice, France, injured 202 people, 25 of whom are on life support among 52 who remain in critical condition, French prosecutor François Molins said today. The death toll in the attack still stands at 84 people.

UPDATE (7/15, 8:25 a.m.): The death toll in last night’s terror attack in Nice, France, has risen to 84 and includes at least two Americans. None of the victims have been identified.

French officials confirmed this morning that the ID found in the truck that plowed through the crowd of Bastille Day revelers belonged to the driver, a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian descent who lived in Nice. Investigators describe the man, who has not been named, as a petty criminal but say he has no known ties to terror groups.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and investigators are searching for a motive.

International leaders condemned the violence, with European heads of state quickly moving to step up security at public venues. Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano reminded his colleagues that Islamic State called for “car jihad” attacks on the West as far back as 2014 and noted Italy already had taken measures to remove traffic from popular pedestrian promenades.

New British Prime Minister Theresa May said Western countries must not let up on terror groups: “We must redouble our efforts to defeat these brutal murderers who want to destroy our way of life.”

UPDATE (10:25 p.m.): French President François Hollande said the truck attack in Nice was “of a terrorist character” and extended a state of emergency in the the country by three months. The death toll has risen to 77 with 20 people gravely injured, Hollande said. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a terrorism investigation into the incident.

Earlier today, Hollande declared the state of emergency, initiated after the Paris terror attacks in November, would end by July 26. “We can’t extend the state of emergency indefinitely, it would make no sense,” Hollande said in his traditional Bastille Day interview. “That would mean we’re no longer a republic with the rule of law applied in all circumstances.”

The president of the region that includes Nice announced that the city’s jazz festival, due to open Saturday, and a Rihanna concert planned for Friday evening, have both been canceled after the attack.

UPDATE (9:03 p.m.): Reaction to the truck attack in Nice is coming in from around the world.

President Barack Obama condemned the incident in Nice, saying it “appears to be a horrific terrorist attack,” adding, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved ones of those killed.”

European Council President Donald Tusk said it was a “tragic paradox” that the victims of the attack were celebrating “liberty, equality, and fraternity”—France’s motto—on the country’s national day of celebration.

France’s ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, characterized the incident as a “terrorist attack.”

UPDATE (8:34 p.m.): More details are emerging about Thursday night’s attack in Nice. Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the Associated Press, said he saw a truck drive into the crowd.

“There was carnage on the road,” Bouhlel said. “Bodies everywhere.”

Christian Estrosi, the president of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur regional council, which includes Nice, said the truck was loaded with arms and grenades and the driver was killed by police. He told BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him.”

Bouhlel said he witnessed the man emerge with a gun and start shooting.

Nice-Matin journalist Damien Allemand, who was on the scene, said the fireworks display had finished and the crowd had got up to leave when they heard a loud noise and people crying out.

“A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people,” he wrote. “I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget.”

At least 75 people are reported dead and 50 wounded.

OUR EARLIER REPORT: A man drove a truck down a sidewalk and into a crowd of people gathered to watch fireworks during a Bastille Day celebration Thursday night in Nice, France, killing at least 60.

The incident, which appeared to be deliberate, took place near the Palais de la Mediterranee, a well-known seaside boulevard.

“It’s a scene on horror,” Nice regional President Eric Ciotti, who was at the scene, said on France Info radio. He said there were 60 dead.

Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Prette said bodies are strewn about along the roadway. However he stopped short of using the word “attack,” while acknowledging “it has many ingredients of an attack that allow us to think that.”

Sylvie Toffin, a press officer with the local prefecture, said that the truck “hit several people on a long trip” down the sidewalk. She called the incident “an attack.”