Truck 'terror' in France's Nice: What we know so far about Bastille Day attack

A "terrorist" gunman killed 80 people and wounded scores when he drove a heavy truck at high speed into a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice at around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Thursday.

Reuters reported that the truck careered for hundreds of metres along the famed Promenade des Anglais seafront, slamming into spectators watching the fireworks, listening to an orchestra or strolling above the beach towards the grand, century-old Hotel Negresco.

"France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy," French President Francois Hollande said in a pre-dawn address to the nation after the attack, noting several children were among the dead. Hollande said he had no doubt it was an act of terrorism and called the carnage an attack on liberty by fanatics who despised human rights. France would, nonetheless, continue military operations in Syria and Iraq.

The French President has, meanwhile, called up military and police reservists to relieve forces worn out by an eight-month state of emergency that began after the Islamic State militant group killed 130 people in Paris. The state of emergency has been extended.

The attack came on a day when France celebrated the anniversary of the 1789 revolutionary storming of the Bastille. According to Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, 80 people have died and 18 were in a critical condition, with many more also wounded.

Counter-terrorist investigators have yet to identify the driver, who a local government official said opened fire before police shot him dead. Newspaper Nice-Matin, meanwhile, quoted unidentified sources as saying the driver was a 31-year-old local of Tunisian origin.

Officials said hundreds were hurt as the driver wove along the seafront, knocking them down "like skittles". According to them, weapons and grenades were found inside the 25-tonne, unmarked articulated truck. The attack so far seems to be the work of a lone assailant. Nice-Matin posted photographs of the truck, its windshield starred by a score of bullets and its radiator grille destroyed.

Nice, a city of some 350,000, has a history as a flamboyant, aristocratic resort but is also a gritty metropolis. It has seen dozens of its Muslim residents travel to Syria to fight, a path taken by previous Islamic State attackers in Europe.

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