Killer, a 31-year-old French Tunisian named by local newspaper Nice Matin as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, mounted pavements at high speed and ploughed through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice last night.
One eyewitness filmed armed officers approaching the cab of the lorry and firing repeatedly through its windscreen and doors before it appears Bouhlet can be heard screaming after being hit by a police bullet.
The shootout came after his 30 minute rampage where he aimed at crowds watching firework and sent 'bodies flying like bowling pins' and left others 'jammed' under the lorry’s wheels at around 10.30pm local time last night.
Witness Nadar El Shafei told the BBC: ‘He died inside the vehicle - I saw his head
getting out of the window I could see it clearly, they kept shooting him from all sides just to be sure. They were afraid that maybe he was not alone but he was alone, I never saw anyone beside him. They used a light to make sure no one else was inside the car then they asked us to run away in case there were others inside the car or a bomb.’
Heartbroken men and women refused to leave the bodies of their loved ones and the dead remain strewn across the famous Promenade des Anglais today.
At least ten of the victims were children, with young girls and boys lying dead covered in a blankets with their dolls and buggies still next to them. Footage taken at the time of the attack shows bodies piled up in the roads and people running from their lives as they tried to avoid the zig-zagging lorry while paramedics treated the injured and dying in the street.
The truck driver, who was known to police, was said to have shouted 'Allahu Akbar' – God is great in Arabic – before being killed in a clear suicide mission. Pro-ISIS groups have been celebrating the attack, orchestrated to coincide with France's most important national holiday.
A huge cache of guns, grenades and 'larger weapons' and the terrorist's identity papers were later found inside the lorry, which mounted the pavement at approximately 40mph and steered directly towards hundreds of people watching a fireworks display.
ISIS supporters have been celebrating the attack, orchestrated to coincide with France's most important national holiday. The gunman was known to police for crimes of theft and violence, but not intelligence services, a police source said. A suspected accomplice is on the run.
France today declared three days of national mourning after the truck attack - its third major terror attack in 18 months - and President Francois Hollande said: 'France is in tears, it is hurting but it is strong and she will be stronger - always stronger than the fanatics who wish to hurt us.'
Shootout: Police approach the cab where the gunman went on his rampage. It is not clear if this was taken as he was killed or beforehand
Last stand: One eyewitness filmed armed officers approaching the cab of the lorry and firing through its windscreen and doors before it appears Bouhlet can be heard screaming after being hit by a police bullet
Drama: Police approached the lorry from all sides and fired through the windscreen and and side doors before he was killed
Terror attack: At least 84 people were killed and dozens more critically injured last night when a terrorist killer, named locally as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, drove this truck, riddled with bullets, through crowds celebrating Bastille day in Nice
Murder weapon: The key suspect is said to have been parked up for nine hours before carrying out the attack and may have been stopped by police but claimed he was delivering ice cream. In fact the back of his lorry contained many weapons and grenades
Horrifying: Police and forensics teams inspect bodies in the French sunshine where at least ten died - many of them in buggies left abandoned today
Terror investigation: The French authorities say it is their third terrorist atrocity in 18 months and admit it could take some time to identify all the dead
Atrocity: At least a dozen bodies of victims covered by sheets remain at the scene of the terror attack today as the authorities try to identify them
United in grief: Parents of victims embrace each other near the scene of a truck attack in Nice where more than 80 were killed
Path of destruction: After spending several hours parked up the killer went on a half hour rampage along the world famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice before he was shot dead by a hero policewoman
The Nice terrorist rented the lorry two days earlier and had been parked on the street for nearly nine hours and even told police he was delivering ice cream before carrying out his deadly attack, according to reports.
The killer, who was previously known to police for violence and theft, is reported to have had assault rifles, a pistol and even a grenade with him in the lorry - but they went undiscovered.
Despite allegedly questioning the driver, police officers in the southern French city did nothing to move him on as he waited to begin the attack.
Reports claim police allowed the killer to stay on the Promenade des Anglais because he told them he was delivering ice cream.
Although heavy duty lorries are normally banned from the roads during national holidays and Sundays, deliveries are often exempted.
Police have now formally identified the attacker as a 31-year-old French-Tunisian man who lived in Nice. They have raided several properties this morning. His family is said to be under police protection.
He was shot dead by a police officer, believed to have been female, after he opened fire into a crowd of fleeing people.
Today the delivery truck, riddled with bullets, remains in the centre of Nice with bodies strewn nearby.
Details of those killed are slowly emerging in the aftermath of the attack.
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Twenty-eight-year-old Hamza Charrihi held up an identity card belonging to her mother who was killed in the attack.
She told L’Express: ‘ She wore the veil of Islam and practiced a true and blanced religion…a real Islam. Not the one of the terrorists.’
Recovering from shock in a University building in the centre of Nice, turned into a shelter for relatives, she spoke briefly to pay testament to the memory of her mother.
Damien Allemand, a journalist for French regional newspaper Nice Matin saw the horror unfold.
He said the attack began just as the fireworks display ended as thousands of people were milling around the waterside.
He said: 'He rode up onto the Prom and piled into the crowd. A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people,' he said. I saw bodies flying like bowling pins along its route. Heard noises, cries that I will never forget.'
Witnesses of the attack in Nice described seeing people run through the streets as they heard gunshots.
Wassim Bouhel told the French TV channel iTele that the lorry zigzagged across the road.
He said: 'We almost died. It was like hallucinating ... (the lorry) zigzagged - you had no idea where it was going. My wife was a metre away.
'The lorry ripped through everything, poles, trees. We have never seen anything like it. Some people were hanging on the door and tried to stop it.'
Bereft: A shocked woman in yellow sits on the phone next to the body of a loved-one, surrounded by debris, as ISIS terrorists again struck in France, this time on Bastille Day, killing at least 84
Alone: A man sits in silence and clasps his hands while sitting at the head of a body killed in France's third major terrorist attack in 18 months
Shootout: After zig-zagging through crowds the terrorist leapt out of his bullet-ridden lorry and fired on crowds before a police marksman shot him dead
Aftermath: This photograph was taken in the moments after the lorry crashed through crowds of people in the devastating terror attack
Panic: People were seen running for their lives after a suspected terrorist drove through crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day then got out and opened fire
Fight for life: An injured young woman wounded in the terror attack is treated in the street by a paramedic as dozens more fight for their lives today
Around 100 people were forced to dive into the sea as panic ensued and holiday crowds desperately ran for their lives. The gunman then jumped out of the truck and opened fire, which is when he was shot dead by police.
French President Francois Hollande said several children were among the dead and added that it was 'undeniable' the massacre was a terrorist attack.
Anti-terror police swooped in as the city was put on lockdown and residents were warned to stay indoors for their safety. Gunshots rang out in the streets, with the gunman targeting hotels and cafes in the port city in the south of France.
One witness called Antoine said: 'We were at the Neptune beach and a firework display had just finished. That is when we saw a white lorry. It was going quickly at 60-70 kilometres an hour.'
Eyewitness Wassim Bouhlel said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd and then witnessed the man emerge with a gun and start shooting.
'There was carnage on the road,' Bouhlel said. 'Bodies everywhere.'
Bodies could be seen lying on the floor by the beach, as the police and other emergency services tried to deal with a mass panic.
Witness Lucy Nesbitt-Comaskey told Sky News that the noise of gunfire 'sounded like Beirut'.
She said: 'I said to my friend 'This doesn't sound like fireworks, it sounds like Beirut when it's under fire'.
'All of a sudden people were screaming in the streets and running into all the restaurants.
'All the restaurants were open and people were coming.
'We were just sitting there and everyone came into our restaurant and the owners were saying 'Please don't go anywhere, come in, come in'.
Ms Nesbitt-Comaskey said she and her friend were planning to go to the fireworks but stopped to find a toilet and were only a block away when the attack happened.
Speaking about what she witnessed, she said: 'It was shocking, it was devastating and I cannot believe that I have come over here for a few days and I have got mixed up in something so tragic.
'It was just awful.'
Briton Will Shore was in a nearby bar when he heard gunfire and said his initial reaction was to run towards the city centre to see what was happening.
He told the BBC: 'I kind of ran towards the centre of Nice where there was a rather large jazz festival, and something was going on. I immediately found that military and the local police were just ushering absolutely everybody out of the area.
'It was quite chaotic really. There was a lot of people screaming, running around and people were kind of being pushed over, I think, from people just being so frightened about what was going on, especially after hearing the gunshots.
'I had to help a couple of people up who were in distress on the floor because everyone was in such a panic.'
He added: 'You could genuinely see the fear and panic in people's faces when they were running away. It was a mass amount of people running away'.
Crime scene: The lorry used as a murder weapon remains on the French Riviera city's famed waterfront promenade with police gathering evidence and marking put bullet casings with yellow numbered signs
Aftermath: The scene on the attack on the Promenade de Anglais where the 31-year-old murderer hit as many people as he could before being killed in a shootout with police
Horror: Bodies are still strewn along the mile-long route as police admitted today that the man who killed them was known to them
A truck ploughed through a large group of people in Nice during a suspected terrorist attack which claimed 'dozens of lives'
Police halted the truck after firing more than 40 rounds into the cab as it ploughed through more than 100 people in Nice last night
Horrific images depicting men and women lying on the side of a road close to the Promenade des Anglais
A child's doll lies on the street beside the body of a young girl who was killed in last night's attack in Nice in the south of France
Monstrous act: A man lies next to a body, with his head in his hands, as he tries to come to terms with the horror of what happened
Armed police took up positions during the attack fearing there were additional terrorists in the area as the perpetrator was shot dead
Death toll: At least ten people lie dead on a short stretch of road where the lorry flew through crowds in Nice, killing families on a national holiday
Emergency services work to save the dead and injured on pavements along the mile-long stretch of road in Nice
Overwhelmed: Paramedics help a stricken victim on the left side of the picture, on the right hand side a man crouches, clearly in tears over the body of a victim
Makeshift: As the death toll rose bodies were left were they were hit or shot and were covered in blankets and often weighed down with whatever was available including rocks from the beach
Stunned survivors stood just feet away from from the bodies of five people who were run over next to HiBeach in Nice, pictured
Path of destruction: The driver spent around 30 minutes on the road before he was stopped by a police marksman in a shoot-out
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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