(Reuters) An attacker at the wheel of a heavy truck plowed 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.
The driver, identified by police sources as a 31-year-old Tunisian-born Frenchman, also appeared to open fire before officers shot him dead. The man, named as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 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 sources said.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel allegedly drove truck that killed 84 people in Nice, France
BREAKING: 2 French officials to AP: ID found in Nice truck matches attacker, was 31-year-old petty criminal from Tunisia.
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 10:30 p.m. (4.30 p.m. ET).
The dead included several children, while the U.S. State Department said two American citizens had been killed. Russian student Viktoria Savchenko was also among the dead, according to the Moscow academy where she studied.
According to one city official, the rented truck careered on for up to 2 km (1.5 miles).
"People went down like nine-pins," Jacques, who runs Le Queenie restaurant on the seafront, told France Info radio.
The attack seemed so far to be the work of a lone assailant.
Hollande said in a pre-dawn address that he was calling up military and police reservists to relieve forces worn out by enforcing a state of emergency begun in November after Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers struck Paris entertainment spots on a Friday evening, killing 130 people.
Only hours earlier he had announced the emergency would be lifted by the end of July. Following the attack, he said it would be extended by a further three months.
"France is filled with sadness by this new tragedy," Hollande said. "There's no denying the terrorist nature of this attack."
Major events in France have been guarded by troops and armed police since the Nov. 13 attacks. But it appeared to have taken many minutes to halt the progress of the truck as it tore along pavements and a pedestrian zone.
One witness said she thought the attacker was firing a gun as he drove.
"I saw this enormous white truck go past at top speed," said Suzy Wargniez, a local woman aged 65 who was watching from a cafe on the promenade. "It was shooting, shooting."
A local government official said weapons and grenades were later found inside the vehicle which was made by Renault Trucks.
Nice-Matin newspaper said on Twitter that police were searching the attacker's home in the Nice neighborhood of Abattoirs. It gave no source of the information.
ISLAMIC STATE TARGETS FRANCE
After the Paris attacks, Islamic State said France and all nations following its path would remain at the top of its list of targets as long as they continued "their crusader campaign", referring to action against the group in Iraq and Syria.
France is conducting air strikes and special forces operations against Islamic State, as well as training Iraqi government and Kurdish forces.
"We will further strengthen our actions in Syria and Iraq," Hollande said, calling the tragedy - on the day France marks the 1789 revolutionary storming of the Bastille prison in Paris - an attack on liberty by fanatics who despised human rights.
France has also sent troops to west Africa to keep Islamist insurgents at bay. The country is home to the European Union's biggest Muslim population, and critics say it has alienated some in the community through strict adherence to a secular culture that allows no place for religion in schools and civic life.
Dawn broke on Friday with pavements smeared with dried blood. Smashed children's strollers, an uneaten baguette and other debris were strewn about the promenade. Small areas were screened off and what appeared to be bodies covered in blankets were visible through the gaps.
The truck was still where it came to rest, its windscreen riddled with bullets.
There had been no claim of responsibility on Friday morning.
The truck careered into families and friends listening to an orchestra or strolling above the beach on the Mediterranean Sea toward the grand, century-old Hotel Negresco.
Bystander Franck Sidoli said he had seen people go down. "Then the truck stopped, we were just five meters away. A woman was there, she lost her son. Her son was on the ground, bleeding," he told Reuters at the scene.
The Paris attack in November was the bloodiest among a number in France and Belgium in the past two years. On Sunday, a weary nation had breathed a sigh of relief that the month-long Euro 2016 soccer tournament had ended without serious incident.
Four months ago, Belgian Islamists linked to the Paris attackers killed 32 people in Brussels.
Vehicle attacks have been used by isolated members of militant groups in recent years, notably in Israel, though never to such devastating effect.
Pop star Rihanna canceled a concert scheduled to be held in Nice on Friday. Riders on the Tour de France, the top event on the international cycling calendar, observed a minute's silence before Thursday's stage, held three hours' drive northwest of Nice. Security has been tightened for the three-week race, which is watched by huge crowds lining the route around the country.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned what he said "appears to be a horrific terrorist attack". Others joining him included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Pope Francis, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and officials from Spain, Sweden, the European Union, NATO and the U.N. Security Council.
Turkey, where Islamic State and Kurdish militants have staged a number of attacks in recent months, offered its condolences. "For terrorist groups, there is no difference between Turkey and France, Iraq and Belgium, and Saudi Arabia and the United States," said President Tayyip Erdogan.
On social media, Islamic State supporters celebrated the high death toll and posted a series of images, one showing a beach purporting to be that of Nice with white stones arranged to read "IS is here to stay" in Arabic.
HIDING IN TERROR
Nice-Matin journalist Damien Allemand had been watching the firework display when the truck tore by. After taking cover in a cafe, he wrote on his paper's website of what he saw: "Bodies every five meters, limbs ... Blood. Groans."
"The beach attendants were first on the scene. They brought water for the injured and towels, which they placed on those for whom there was no more hope."
Officials have warned of the continuing risk of Islamist attacks in Europe. Reverses for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have raised fears it might strike again, using alienated young men from the continent's Arab immigrant communities.
Nice, a city of 350,000, has a history as a flamboyant, aristocratic resort but is also a gritty metropolis. It has seen dozens of its Muslim residents travel to Syria to fight.
At Nice's Pasteur hospital, medical staff were treating large numbers of injuries. Waiting for friends who were being operated on, 20-year-old Fanny told Reuters she had been lucky.
"We were all very happy, ready to celebrate all night long," she said. "I saw a truck driving into the pedestrian area, going very fast and zig-zagging.
"The truck pushed me to the side. When I opened my eyes I saw faces I didn't know and started asking for help ... Some of my friends were not so lucky. They are having operations as we speak. It's very hard, it's all very traumatic."
(Additional reporting by Matthias Blamont, Maya Nikolaeva, Michel Rose, Bate Felix, Brian Love adn Bate Felix in Paris, Alastair Macdonald in Brussels, Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Andreas Rinke in Ulaanbaatar; Writing by Alastair Macdonald, Andrew Callus and David Stamp; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Pravin Char)
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Injured woman being helped to safety after Oslo bombing
Videos And Pictures The Jump
Oslo, Norway (CNN) -- New details emerged Saturday surrounding the mass shooting and bomb attack in Norway that left 91 people dead, as a fuller picture of the suspect charged in the attacks came to light.
An employee at a Norwegian agricultural cooperative told CNN that the man identified in media reports as the suspect in Friday's attacks bought six tons of fertilizer from her company in May.
Oddmy Estenstad, of Felleskjopet Agr, said she did not think the order was strange at the time because the suspect has a farm, but after the bombing she called police because she knew the material can be used to make bombs.
"We are very shocked that this man was connected to our company," said Estenstad. "We are very sad about what happened."
Norwegian television and newspaper reports have identified the suspect as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik.
Anders Behring Breivik
Official sources and social media indicate that Breivik might be a right-wing Christian fundamentalist who may have had an issue with Norway's multi-cultural society.
Police have not officially released the identity of the suspect, telling reporters only that they detained a 32-year-old Norwegian man who is being questioned in both the Oslo bombing -- which left seven dead and more than 90 wounded -- and the shooting attack at the youth camp on Utoya island, in which 84 people were killed.
Emergency workers carry away dead bodies from shooting massacre on Utoya Island
The suspect was cooperating with police, making it clear he wanted to explain himself, Roger Andresen, a deputy police chief, told reporters during a news conference.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg did not rule out the possibility that there was more than one person involved in the attacks, which he called the "worst atrocity" the country had faced since World War II.
"They have so far arrested one person," Stoltenberg told reporters Saturday. "They have not concluded whether there is one or more than one person behind the attacks."
Indeed, a second person was arrested Saturday in a hotel where the prime minister was due to meet families of the victims of the attack, police said. He was carrying a knife, state-run broadcaster NRK reported.
Seven were killed in Friday's explosion in the Norwegian capital, officials said. In all, 90 people were hospitalized as a result of the blast, said Erik Hansen, a spokesman for Oslo Mayor Fabian Stang.
Woman injured in Oslo bombimg
It was while authorities were searching for survivors of the mid-afternoon bombing that a man wearing a police uniform and identifying himself as an officer arrived by boat at Utoya island, about 20 miles from Oslo, where word was spreading among the campers about the explosion in the capital, said Adrian Pracon, a survivor of the mass shooting.
The hundreds of teens and young adults attending the camp were gathered in a large meeting room where camp organizers were sharing information about the bombing in Oslo when the police officer asked if he could address the group, Pracon said.
"We, of course, allowed him to come" in and talk to those assembled, Pracon said.
It was then that the man started shooting.
What followed, Pracon says, was panic and chaos as some campers ran from the shooter, while others went toward the man because they believed it was a drill or a test.
Many who fled ran toward the shore, jumping into the water to try to swim the three-fourths of a mile between the island and the mainland.
Pracon was among those who attempted to swim, but he was forced to turn back.
"I felt I couldn't breathe. I already swallowed too much water. I also jumped because I was the last person running to the shore from this man. So I didn't have time to take my clothes off. As I was swimming, I felt the clothes pulling me down because they were heavy boots, clothes," he said.
Pracon said the shooter chased people to the shore, screaming at them as he fired at them.
Pracon was lying on the shore when the gunman opened fire at those in the water and on the shore.
"I was maybe 5, maybe 7 meters away from him as he was yelling he was 'going to kill you all' and 'we all shall die.' He pointed his gun at me, but he didn't pull the trigger," Pracon said.
"He left and returned maybe an hour later ... he shot almost everyone."
Authorities on Saturday said 84 had died on the island.
An aerial view of Utoya Island where the second attack took place
"Me and two others were laying down and survived because of the bodies we could hang on to and pretend that we are dead," Pracon told CNN early Saturday by telephone from his hospital room.
"I could feel his breath," said 21-year-old Pracon. "I could hear his boots."
When police arrived on the island, many survivors believed they might also be gunmen posing as police.
"Everyone started screaming, crying and begging police officers to throw away their weapons," Pracon said.
An elite police unit took the gunman into custody on the island, Andresen said. The man did not put up a fight during his arrest, he said.
Authorities were searching the waters Saturday around the island, looking for bodies of campers who may have drowned trying to swim to safety, police said.
Massacre: People are seen on the banks of Utoya after the shooting
The suspect matched the description of a person who was seen near the government buildings shortly before the bombs erupted, police said.
The acting national police chief, Sveinung Sponheim, told reporters in Oslo that the gun used to shoot the campers was an automatic weapon and that undetonated explosives were found on the island after the attack.
More Pictures After The JumpLike most men, when I think of a pageant the first thing that comes to mind is the swimsuit contest. I'm not really trying to hear these women talk about their views on world issues. I'm more concerned with seeing how they look in a two piece bikini.
With that in mind, I bring you the Miss Universe contestants in their swim wear.
The event airs tonight at 9pm eastern
Who's the hottest?
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