France President announced an extension of a State of Emergency by three months after, a truck drove into a crowd at Bastille Day ceremonies late Thursday in Nice. President Francois Hollande has called it an act of terror. The attack happened on Bastille Day, a major holiday in France. Victims of the crash had been watching fireworks on the beach when it happened. One witness said the truck driver appeared to accelerate toward his victims. According to French authorities, the driver was killed by French police.
French President Francois Hollande, in a live television address to the nation earlier today, said: “We cannot deny that it was terrorist attack.”
A witness gave an account of what happened at the scene:
“All we see is this truck along the boardwalk, just ploughing through people, just bodies getting hit and people running in all directions,” Tony Molina, who witnessed the attack from his apartment, tells CNN.
“We watched in disbelief.”
He added that following the crash, there was a “barrage of gunfire.”
“There were families just laying down, crying next to these bodies. Then they had to clear the area out. The bodies say there covered up.”
Earlier reports said that 77 people had been killed. Recent reports from the French Interior Ministry have cited that the death toll from the attack in Nice has risen to 84.
