Over 70 killed as truck rams into crowd in France’s Nice

Paris, July 15 (IANS) At least 73 peoples were killed and many others injured as a truck rammed into crowd in Nice, southern France, local TV channels reported early on Friday, citing the prosecutor of Nice.

At this stage, “we can not describe these things as an attack, but many elements suggest that,” BFMTV quoted Jean-Michel Pretre as saying, Xinhua reported.

At 22:30 Thursday night local time, a truck drove at high speed into the crowd who gathered on the promenade to watch fireworks marking July 14, the French national day, wrote Christian Estrosi, president of the region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, on Twitter.

Estrosi described the incident as “the worst Nice drama of history.”

BFMTV said the truck “travelled for two kilometers ploughing people”.

The driver in the incident, which was earlier reportedly described by the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes as an “attack”, was neuralised and probe was launched to determine whether he acted alone, the interior ministry said.

French President Francois Hollande, who was in Avignon, was going back to Paris where he will directly go to the crisis unit at the Interior Ministry, according to Elysee.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve will arrive at Nice in the coming hours, said Pierre-Henry Brandet, the spokesperson of Interior Ministry, adding that there was no hostage in the incident.