About 30 people have been killed and 100 injured in the French city of Nice when a truck ploughed into a crowd in what officials and witnesses say was a deliberate attack.
The truck driver was reportedly killed in an exchange of gunfire with police but this has not been confirmed by authorities.
The truck drove on to the footpath and ploughed through a crowd of revellers who'd gathered to watch the Bastille Day fireworks late on Thursday on the French resort city's famous Promenade des Anglais.
Sylvie Toffin, a press officer with the local prefecture, told The Associated Press the truck "hit several people on a long trip" down the footpath near Nice's Palais de la Mediterranee, a building which fronts the beach.
"A truck rammed into the crowd over a long distance, which explains this extremely heavy toll," Sebastien Humbert, the prefect for the Alpes-Maritime area said on BFM TV.
Humbert said the truck driver had been shot dead and that he was treating the incident as an attack for the moment.
Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP nearby, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd.
"There was carnage on the road," Bouhlel said. "Bodies everywhere."
Bouhlel said he witnessed the man emerge with a gun and start shooting, but Toffin said that "to my knowledge" there was no gunfire.
She confirmed the incident was deliberate.
"It's an attack," she said.
Footage showed crowds fleeing in terror from the scene. Eyewitnesses reported hearing gunshots and pictures on social media showed armed police with weapons trained on a badly damaged white truck.
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi, who was at the celebration when it happened, tweeted: "Dear people of Nice, the driver of a truck seems to have left dozens dead. Stay for now in your home. More info to come."
The incident comes as France remains badly shaken by November 2015 attacks which killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and nightspots across the city.
