Breaking News: France Terror Attack Tears Families Apart As Scores Die

At least 80 people, including women and children, were killed when a terrorist drove a truck filled with arms and grenades into a crowd celebrating the French National Day in Nice, France, on Thursday, 14th of July, 2016.

According to Fox News, 18 others were seriously injured by the long-distance delivery truck that ploughed head on into the crowd that had gathered for the French National Day, also known as Bastille Day, fireworks display.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, two sources, including a US counter-terrorism source who collects and monitors jihadist social media, told Fox News that accounts linked to ISIS were “celebratory” and their followers were told to use the hashtag “Nice”.

Mirror reports that a Twitter account called nicefindpeople has been created, since the news broke, solely for the purpose of finding missing persons, and more than 1,500 people looking for their loved ones have joined. Photographs of missing men, women, and children, including teenagers and one of a little girl around the age of six, have been posted on this Twitter handle and other social media sites by their families and friends.

Tiava Banner, a mother who was separated from her baby in the panic of the terror attack, posted a desperate appeal on Facebook for anyone who had seen her eight-month-old son. She later updated her post, saying that she had been reunited with her son.

Some others, however, have not been so fortunate, Mirror sources say. A man named Pascal asked for help in finding his cousin, Gregoire, who had been missing for two hours after the attack was first announced.

Another person posted the photograph of a teenager, probably in his mid-teens, with a message that read, “Help me, I have lost my brother in the crowd and he is not responding to my telephone calls.”

Speaking on the terror attack, the french president, Francois Hollande, acknowledged the fact that children were among the dead, adding that his country was “under the threat of Islamic terrorism.”

He said, “We have to demonstrate absolute vigilance and show determination that is unfailing.”

Hollande announced that he would extend France’s state of emergency by another three months, until October 26. France has been on its highest state of alert since ISIS terrorists killed 130 people in Paris last year.

The French Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, confirmed the death toll early on Friday morning, sources say.

Photo credit: Valery Hache/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images