As it happened: Nice truck attacker identified as French petty criminal

A truck loaded with weapons and hand grenades drove onto a sidewalk for more than a mile, ploughing through Bastille Day revellers who had gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city of Nice late Thursday. At least 84 people were killed before police killed the driver, authorities said.

An attacker at the wheel of a heavy truck ploughed into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing at least 84 people and injuring scores more in what President Francois Hollande called a terrorist act.

Forensic officers stands near a truck with its windscreen riddled with bullets, that ploughed through a crowd of revellers who had gathered to watch the fireworks in the French resort city of Nice, southern France, Friday.(AP Photo)

The driver, identified by a police source as a 31-year-old Tunisian-born Frenchman, also appeared to open fire before officers shot him dead. The man was not on the watch list of French intelligence services, but was known to the police in connection with common crimes such as theft and violence, the source said.

The bloodshed came on Bastille Day, a celebration of everything France holds dear, its secular republic and the values of “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity).

Read: France: At least 80 dead in Nice truck attack, terror link suspected

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 18 people were in a critical condition after the attack on Thursday night, when the white truck zigzagged along the seafront Promenade des Anglais as a fireworks display marking the French national day ended just after 10.30pm (2030 GMT).

Here are the highlights related to the incident: