A professional magician who lives in Kent and spends a lot of his time in the French city of Nice has condemned a brutal mass killing that took place last night.

A lorry drove into crowds watching a fireworks display along a packed promenade during the Bastille Day celebrations.

The rising death toll includes many children in what is being treated as a terrorist attack.

The driver behind the attack - who is believed to have been a 31-year-old French-Tunisian - has been shot dead by police.

Etienne Pradier, of Rural Terrace in Wye, has lived in this country for more than 30 years, but said that Nice is where a lot of his family and friends live.

He was also there about a month ago.

He said this morning: "I am totally in shock, it is terrible, I have a lot of friends there and the first thing I did was phone them.

"The mother and the son of one of my friends was just minutes away from the lorry - it is just atrocity after atrocity.

"It is just a horrible thing to do, there are no words to describe what they do to these people."

Mr Pradier said the incident will not stop his plans to go out to Nice in three weeks time to meet his business partner.

"I travel a lot and this could have been anywhere," he said.

"I spoke to my business partner and he is very down at the moment.

"There is no reason for it, they just come in and take these lives."

On November 13 last year, devastation hit French capital Paris as more than 120 were killed in a series of co-ordinated attacks by suicide bombers.

In a united front with this country, Mr Pradier took his son Clement, 15, to a friendly football game between England and France.

The French national anthem was sung by both sides and the Wembley stadium arch was illuminated in the country's colours, red, white and blue.