Nice attack live: Photo emerges of Bastille Day killer as relative says 'he was no Muslim' - latest news
At least 84 people have been killed, including 'many' children, after a lorry ploughed through a large crowd celebrating Bastille Day on the seafront in Nice, France
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- Video shows moment French police shoot killer
- 84 dead including 'many' children, 50 'between life and death'
- 'Hero' stopped rampage by jumping into lorry to wrestle driver
- Everything we know about the suspect
- UK terror attack 'highly likely' says Theresa May
- The most powerful tribute cartoons
- Heartbreaking photo shows young victim lying alongside doll
At least 84 people have been killed, including a number of children, after a lorry ploughed through a large crowd celebrating Bastille Day on the seafront in Nice, France.
More than a dozen were critically injured, according to the latest count from the French interior ministry.
The driver of the truck, identified in French media as a 31-year-old local of Tunisian origin, is understood to have been shot dead by police at the scene.
Many hundreds were told to run from the scene by police, and the president of the local region, Christian Estrosi, urged everyone in the city to remain indoors.
Witnesses said the driver hit the crowd at high speed, swerving to hit as many as possible before climbing out of the car and shooting more dead.
Images emerged of the badly damaged truck, its windscreen riddled with bullets. Witnesses say there was an exchange of gunfire between the driver and police.
The attack happened on the Promenade des Anglais at around 10:30pm local time at the end of a firework display in what local officials are treating as serious terror attack.
Anti-terror investigators have taken over the scene which has been cordoned off to the public, and an anti-terror probe has now officially been opened.
A spokesman for France's interior ministry said there is going to be "a very high death toll".
President Francois Hollande rushed back to Paris in the wake of the attack, and announced three security measures, including the extension of France's state of emergency - due to end on 26 July - for a further three months.
"A horror has come down on France again," he said, adding that "the terrorist character [of the the attack] cannot be denied".
Mr Hollande expressed solidarity with the victims of the attack, while sounding a defiant note, saying France would continue its operations in Syria and Iraq.
"After Paris, Nice is now hit," he said. "It is all of France which is under threat of Islamic terrorism.
"It is clear we need to do all we can to fight against terrorism," he said. "France is strong, and France will always be stronger, I assure you."
Police say the rampage may have been even worse if a member of the public had not jumped into the lorry's cab and wrestled with the driver, the Independent's France correspondent John Lichfield reports:
Nice hospital officials said that two children crushed by the lorry had died during emergency operations early this morning. Another 55 children were still being treated, including several who were fighting for their lives.
Police sources in Nice confirmed that the murderous two kilometre charge of the lorry might have been even longer if it had not been for the courage of a member of the public.
They said the man had hurled himself into the cab when the 20 tonne truck was held up by an obstruction. He wrestled with the driver, who seized a revolver and fired several shots at the man and at police officers who arrived on the scene. None was hurt. The driver was then shot dead by two officers, including a woman.
According to Le Figaro website, the truck entered a section of the promenade closed to traffic by driving onto a pavement and around a metal barrier.
Policemen walk on the site where a truck drove into a crowd watching a fireworks display on the Promenade des Anglais seafront in the French Riviera town of Nice (HACHEVALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)
A forensic expert evacuates a dead body on the Promenade des Anglais seafront (BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images)
A "small number" of Britons have been identified as injured in the attack, the Cobra security meeting heard.
"At this stage we are aware of a small number of British nationals who have been injured, but that is just the situation as we know it now, those numbers may change," the Prime Minister's official spokeswoman said.
The foreign ministries of Armenia and Ukraine say two Armenians and one Ukrainian were killed in Thursday's attack in Nice.
The foreign ministry of Armenia says two of its citizens were killed. They would not immediately give the details.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says one Ukrainian was killed but the ministry would not identify the victim citing the family's right to privacy.Two Ukrainians were injured.
Switzerland's foreign ministry says a Swiss woman was killed, but declined to provide further details for privacy reasons.
"The choice of Nice as a target – whether deliberately calculated by Isis or not – is potentially explosive," John Lichfield, our correspondent in Paris, writes:
The attacker's ex-wife has been detained by police, the Mr Molins said.
He said the attacker's lorry, rented on 11 July, should have been returned by 13 July.
The prosecutor said the attacker drove 2km down the promenade and fired at three policemen outside a hotel.
Police found an automatic pistol, a charger, bullets and an automatic weapon in the cabin.
In the lorry, they found two Kalashnikovs and M16s, one grenade and a mobile phone.
He said the investigation will look at how the suspect acquired the weapons and whether he had accomplices, as well as look for links between Bouhlel and terrorist organisations.
Thank you for following The Independent's live blog so far. I'm now handing over to my colleague Will Worley.
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