LIVE BLOG: Bastille Day attack in Nice

The front pages of local and national French newspapers on Friday morning spoke of the "horror" in Nice the night before - some also expressed disbelief at being targeted for the third time in less than 18 months, with the memory of previous attacks still fresh in the public mind.

Translation: The same word again: "horror" in the headline of La Provence

Translation: "Horror, again," in Sud Ouest

The attack in Nice proves that the world must work faster to end the "terrorist scourge," US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday morning.

Speaking in Moscow, where he is meeting his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Kerry said that urgent action must be taken, declaring Syria an "incubator of terror".

Kerry is in Moscow for what he called "serious and frank discussions" about the war in Syria, in which Russia and the US are backing opposite sides.

A spokesperson for the Turkish presidency on Friday morning put out a statement strongly condemning Thursday night's attack.

"On this sad day, we stand in solidarity with France," said Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesperson for the presidency.

The man suspected of killing at least 84 people in Nice was a resident of the city, Le Monde reports.

His name has not yet been publicly reported, but appears on identity documents found in the cab of the truck.

The man, who fired a 7.65 pistol at police when they tried to stop the attack, was reportedly born in Tunisia in 1985 and had a residence permit in France.

He was shot dead by two members of the special forces after ploughing through crowds for two kilometres.

Public events scheduled to take place in Nice and Marseilles have been cancelled in the wake of Thursday's attack.

Global pop superstar Rihanna was scheduled to play in Nice on Friday but has cancelled the gig.

The NIce Jazz Festival, due to start on Saturday, has also been cancelled, along with a Friday fireworks display in Marseilles.

Crowds of people had thronged onto the seaside promenade in Nice on Thursday night to watch a fireworks display celebrating France's national Bastille Day when the attack began.

France's Defence Council met at the Elysee Palace in France on Friday morning to discuss Thursday night's attack in Nice.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was pictured hurrying into the meeting, which will also include President Francois Hollande.

Hollande has already announced that a state of emergency put in place last year is to be extended for a further three months.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday morning said he agreed with the decision, saying it had been "absolutely necessary" to extend the emergency powers given to police and security forces.

"We are in a war that will last, with a threat that is constantly renewing itself," he said.

"Adaptation and continuously strengthening our fight plan against Islamist terrorism remains a top priority.

"A firmness and exceptional constant vigilance will be needed for a long time. Nothing can be as before, "he said.

Authorities in Nice had been actively preparing to face an attack, fearing a repeat of the two previous deadly assaults to hit France in the past 18 months, Le Monde reports.

Nice, which in February hosts the world's third-largest carnival after Rio and Venice, had "special safety devices" in place, co-ordinated by the French Interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve.

On 8 March security forces staged a simulated attack, ahead of the Euro 2016 football tournament hosted in France.

At the time a police spokesperson said they were preparing for any eventuality: "nuclear, radioactive, biological and chemical".

Authorities had also attempted to guard against attacks from the sea, hiring Nitzan Nuriel - a former Israeli general - to carry out an audit of Nice's security.

The Council on American-Islamic relations, an advocacy group in the US, has condemned the "bloody massacre" in Nice, and criticised a US politician's call for Muslims to undergo a "religion test" or face deportation.

"We condemn this bloody massacre as we have condemned previous ISIS or ISIS-inspired atrocities and the deviant ideology that produces such senseless and cowardly violence," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. "We are praying for the people of Nice, the victims of another outrageous attack on humanity."

Awad also criticised statements by Newt Gingrich, a Republican politician and former speaker of the House of Representatives, who said on Thursday night that every Muslim in the US should be "tested" to see if they believe in imposing Islamic law.

"When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggests that American Muslims be subjected to an Inquisition-style religious test and then expelled from their homes and nation, he plays into the hands of terror recruiters and betrays the American values he purports to uphold," Awad said.

Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, formerly director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama, also went on the offensive following the attack.

Flynn, a supporter of Donald Trump, also slammed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for donning a hijab.

The attacker who drove a lorry through celebrating crowds on Thursday night was known to French police for common law crimes, but was not on a counter-terror watchlist, a French police source told Reuters.

The man, identified as a Tunisia-born Frenchman but whose name has not been made public, had not previously been investigated by the French intelligence services.