FRANCE: Truck Attack Death Toll Rises To 84, Killer Identified, President Extends State Of Emergency

The Washington Post reports:



A truck rammed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice on Thursday night, killing at least 84 people in an apparent terrorist attack in which the driver also opened fire on revelers before being shot dead by police.

The truck struck the crowd after a fireworks display for the French national day on the Promenade des Anglais, a seaside walk in this southern French city. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced early Friday that in addition to the dead, another 18 people were in critical condition.

A police source confirmed to Reuters the suspect was a 31-year-old French-Tunisian man born in Tunisia who was known to French police for committing common crimes but was not known to outside intelligence sources.

In an address early Friday morning, President François Hollande condemned the “attack whose terrorist nature cannot be denied.” He announced that France would ramp up its military efforts in Syria and Iraq and that the country’s state of emergency, which had been imposed after Islamist militants killed 130 people in Paris last November, would be extended three months.