Photo: French police forces and forensic officers near the truck that ran into the crowd (Reuters: Eric Gaillard)

Nice attack: At least 70 dead as truck rams into Bastille Day crowd in French Riviera city

15 Jul 2016,

At least 70 people are dead and scores more injured after a truck ploughed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice, in what local media called a terrorist attack.

The driver of the truck was shot dead after barrelling down the famed Promenade des Anglais seafront, sending hundreds of terrified people fleeing and leaving the path strewn with bodies, local government officials said.

"An individual drove a truck into the crowd. He was killed by police," interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.

Local politician Christian Estrosi said the truck was loaded with weapons and grenades.

Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said at least 70 people were killed, with scores of others injured.

Officials declined to formally declare the attack as terrorist assault pending further information, but prosecutors said the probe would be handled by anti-terrorist investigators.

"Investigations are currently under way to establish if the individual acted alone or if he had accomplices who might have fled," Mr Brandet said, denying reports a hostage-taking incident had taken place.

The attack unfolded almost exactly eight months after Islamic State militants killed 130 people in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris.

Soldiers, police and ambulance crews attended the scene, while residents of the Mediterranean city close to the Italian border were advised to stay indoors.

The Department of Foreign Affairs was making "urgent enquiries" to determine if any Australians were affected.

ABC producer David Coady was among the crowds fleeing the scene in panic, and said he could hear screaming and loud bangs.

"People were tripping over in the commotion, there was a lot of panic," he told ABC News 24.

"People were trying to get into hotels, any businesses that were open, trying to take shelter, because it was unclear what was happening.

"With each bang that we heard behind us, people perhaps started to go a bit faster, people were tripping over, it was a very chaotic scene."

Many people, including families, had been at the promenade watching a fireworks display.

'It's just mayhem'

Sydney man Marcus Freeman is holidaying in Nice, and is now in lockdown in his hotel, not far from the promenade.

"We brought in about 10 people from the street and they're currently in our hotel room, and it's just mayhem," he told Radio National.

"We just locked the doors, we got the people in here, we don't know what's happening. It's just an unrealistic situation for us."

An AFP reporter described seeing a white van driving at high speed onto the promenade.

"We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around," he said, adding that the incident took place near the city's famed Hotel Negresco.

"It was absolute chaos."

Witnesses also described hearing gunfire, but this was not immediately confirmed by the authorities.

A photograph showed the front of the truck riddled with bullet holes and badly damaged, with burst tyres.

Hollande headed to Paris crisis talks

The apparent assault came just hours after France announced that a state of emergency declared after last November's attacks in Paris would come to an end later this month.

French President Francois Hollande was en route to Paris for crisis talks, and US President Barack Obama was briefed on the situation.

Australian terrorism expert Greg Barton from Deakin University said the scale and "clear deliberate intent" of the attack indicated it was most likely the work of Islamic State terrorists.

"The logic of using a heavily laden truck at speed into a crowd where they can't run away, you can see how devastating the effect of it is," he told ABC News 24.

"And you can imagine cells in France talking among themselves of opportunities they had, what they had at hand, and it's no surprise they have come up with something like this."

He said the French Government would now have to determine whether the Nice incident could be the start of a coordinated series of attacks.

"The immediate crisis meeting now with Francois Hollande is to try to figure out what else might be coming," he said.