DHAKA: A lorry has struck a crowd after Bastille Day celebrations in the southern French city of Nice, killing at least 80 people and injuring dozens.

Officials said it happened on the famous Promenade des Anglais after a firework display. The driver was shot dead and guns and grenades were found inside the lorry, reports the BBC.

President Francois Hollande said the attack was of a “terrorist nature”.

He said he was extending a state of emergency by three months.

France had been on high alert following last November's attacks in Paris in which 130 people died and hundreds were wounded.

The state of emergency had been due to end on 26 July.

“France is badly hit,” Hollande said, adding that “we need to do everything we can to fight against” such attacks.

“All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism.”

About 50 people were injured, 20 of them critically, in the incident on Thursday evening.

Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said that “a lorry driver appears to have killed dozens of people”.

Prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said the lorry drove two kilometres (1.2 miles) through a large crowd.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet denied earlier reports of hostage situations and said the driver of the lorry had been “neutralized”.

He added that officials were investigating whether the driver acted alone.

French President Francois Hollande was returning back to Paris for crisis talks in the capital, his office said. Hollande was in the southern city of Avignon on a private visit.

Some reports spoke of shots being exchanged between police and the occupants of the lorry but these have not been confirmed.

Social media video showed people running through the streets in panic following the incident.

A journalist with the Nice Matin newspaper reported from the scene that there was “a lot of blood and without doubt many injured”.

Another image on Twitter showed a white lorry stopped in the middle of the promenade with damage to its front, and four police officers observing it while taking cover behind a palm tree.

One eyewitness said “Everyone was calling run, run, run there’s an attack run, run, run. We heard some shots. We thought they were fireworks because it’s the 14th of July.

“There was great panic. We were running too because we didn’t want to stick around and we went into a hotel to get to safety.”

Another witness, Roy Calley told the BBC that there were “thousands of people on the promenade” when the incident happened.

US President Barack Obama had been briefed about the situation in Nice “and his national security team will update him, as appropriate”, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.

BDST: 0840 HRS, JUL 15, 2016
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