The death toll in the attack in Nice, France has risen to 84 people, including children, with dozens more injured, according to the BBC.
In his most recent statement, French president Francois Hollande said there are 50 more severely injured people between life and death as a result the horrific massacre in which a man drove a truck into a large crowd celebrating Bastille Day.
According to USA TODAY and CNN, the attacker has been identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. What caused him to commit this terrorist attack is still unknown. It was also reported that Bouhlel, a French man of Tunisian descent, was a known to be a petty criminal but was not on a watch-list or seen by intelligence as a threat to public safety.
The BBC reported that witnesses said Bouhlel drove into a large crowd for almost 1.2 miles and seemed to swerve in favor of hitting as many people as possible before being shot and killed by the police. While it was previously reported that a number of grenades and weapons were found inside the truck, some of those weapons have been found to be fake.
No outside group has taken responsibility for the attack at this time, and it does appear to have been premeditated. The attack comes after the 2015 attack in Paris when 130 people were killed. After that attack, the country instated a state of emergency, which was supposed to end on July 26. Now, the Hollande has said the state of emergency will be extended for three months.
President Hollande said“We will overcome suffering because we are a united France."
