Truck Crashes Into Bastille Day Crowd In Nice, France

By Rebecca Hersher
The former mayor of the French city of Nice said dozens of people were likely killed after a van drove into a crowd during Bastille Day in the French Riviera resort Thursday. He urged residents to stay indoors.
The former mayor of the French city of Nice said dozens of people were likely killed after a van drove into a crowd during Bastille Day in the French Riviera resort Thursday. He urged residents to stay indoors. Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images
The former mayor of the French city of Nice said dozens of people were likely killed after a van drove into a crowd during Bastille Day in the French Riviera resort Thursday. He urged residents to stay indoors. Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images
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The former mayor of the French city of Nice said dozens of people were likely killed after a van drove into a crowd during Bastille Day in the French Riviera resort Thursday. He urged residents to stay indoors.
The former mayor of the French city of Nice said dozens of people were likely killed after a van drove into a crowd during Bastille Day in the French Riviera resort Thursday. He urged residents to stay indoors. Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images
The former mayor of the French city of Nice said dozens of people were likely killed after a van drove into a crowd during Bastille Day in the French Riviera resort Thursday. He urged residents to stay indoors. Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images
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Truck Crashes Into Bastille Day Crowd In Nice, France

By Rebecca Hersher
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Updated 8:15 p.m. ET

A truck drove into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, killing dozens of people on Thursday evening. Local media report the number of dead could be as high as 70, with 100 people injured.

NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reported the truck started about a mile away and plowed into a crowd of people watching fireworks on the French national holiday, and that the identity of the driver is still unknown. The French anti-terror prosecutor in Paris has opened a terror case looking into the Nice attack.

Beardsley reported:

“The driver was shot. There may have a second person in the truck, we don’t know yet.

“Witnesses describe hundreds of people running in every direction, pounding on doors, asking to be let in. Another witness [reports] layers of bodies piled on each other and people taking tablecloths from restaurants to lay over them.

The Associated Press quoted an eyewitness, Wassim Bouhlel, as saying there were “bodies everywhere” after the crash. He told the wire service that after the truck entered the crowd, he saw the driver emerge from the vehicle with a gun, shooting at people.

Reuters quoted local television station BFM TV as saying the local government in Nice was asking people to stay home following the incident.

The head of the regional government, former Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, told BFM TV the truck had guns and grenades inside, according to the wire service, and posted a tweet calling on the people of Nice to stand together in solidarity.

Multiple live videos streaming online from Nice shortly after 10:30 p.m. local time show people running in panic down the city’s streets.

French President Francois Hollande went to the interior ministry’s crisis center after hearing of the attack, according to Reuters.

NPR’s Scott Horsley reports President Obama was briefed on the attack by his counter-terrorism advisers shortly after it occurred, and that he would be updated throughout the night.

This is a breaking news story. We will update this post as details are confirmed.

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