We have taken the color out and frozen the pictures because its simply too graphic to show otherwise. Throughout the hour and the night, we will bring you all of the latest. Want to begin with Cnns Becky Anderson reporting from paris and cnn chief National Security analyst, jim sciutto. Becky, lets talk about exactly what we know at this hour with the caveat as we always do that early reports are often contradictory and information fragmentary. Reporter yeah. Youre absolutely right. What we do know is this event occurred around 10 00 local time. It is now 3 00 in the morning. Sadly, over the past five hours, the number of dead slowly rising. We now have 77 confirmed dead, more than 100 injured, and some very very disturbing witness accounts of a Truck Driving down that beachside promenade, the promenade des anglais. Those of our viewers who spent any time in the southern resort town of nice, driving some two kilometers along the beach promenade at Something Like 20, 25 kilometers an hour. What we understand is this truck simply plowed over those in the crowd. There were tens of thousands in the crowd, gathered to celebrate bastille day. It is july 14th, the equivalent of Independence Day in the u. S. , and tens of thousands there to see the fireworks. This truck plowed over them. We are told by witnesses they saw an assailant shooting from that truck, told by one witness they saw the assailant get out of his truck, open fire at least two times and get back in the truck before authorities shot and killed him. I have just been listening to one report on local tv here and that of a guy who says that he saw this truck plow over a woman on the street and he thought that this guy had simply knocked her over and was trying to reverse to get out of the situation, and he and his friends, he says, were trying to pull this injured woman out from underneath this truck and then he realized something untoward was going on. French tv and media also report that they have rescued Something Like 100 people from the sea off the beach in nice who simply fled from the carnage. This is almost too unbelievable to believe. The context of this, of course, has been a tumultuous 18 months starting in january of 2015 with the Charlie Hebdo killings, then the attacks of some eight months ago, the attacks when 130 people lost their lives. So absolute abject shock and horror. The Prime Minister and the president arriving back in paris tonight for a crisis meeting at the interior ministry. That is what we know as of yet. Jim sciutto, you have been talking to a number of eyewitnesses and others. What are you hearing . Evidence that this was certainly an intention yal atta. I spoke to an american who was 15 feet away as the truck plowed through the crowd. He said the truck accelerated as it hit people. French authorities now investigating this as a terror attack. Thats the leading theory among u. S. Investigators. It is early. They dont know the motivation. At a minimum, an act of mass murder. What it is unpre presprecedentes using a vk ehicle as a with of mass murder. No car bomb, no explosion, simply driving through a crowd, able to leave such terror and death in its wake. Thats unprecedented. Thats going to be a real concern for Counter Terror officials in europe and certainly in the u. S. As well. Jim sciutto, Becky Anderson, appreciate the update. We are continuing to cover this, really this everchanging situation. We are learning more and more pieces of information minute by minute. The death toll now stands at 77. That according to french officials. As many as 100 people, though, have been injured and but again, that death toll very likely expected to rise given the number of injuries and the types of injuries that we have seen on some videos, most of those we are not showing you. They are simply too gruesome or graphic to actually show. But this situation which occurred as Becky Anderson was reporting around 10 00 local time, continued, the driver of the vehicle moving for some two kilometers, although the exact distance is not known. Its not clear, heres what we dont know. There is early reports that this began with gunfire and then the vehicle began plowing through people. Its not clear frankly whether that was actually the case, gunfire coming from the vehicle itself, or whether that was Police Officials or Law Enforcement officials, military officials, trying to stop the vehicle from going through a barricade. Thats one thing we dont exactly know. Clearly this vehicle was able to move for some two kilometers. Becky anderson has a report based on one eyewitness that the person who was driving at one point may have gotten out of the vehicle, shot and then gotten back in the vehicle. But after about two kilometers, the vehicle was finally stopped. There are bullets, bullet holes riddled through the windshield of this vehicle. Exactly what was in the back of the vehicle, unclear. There are some reports really from one french official who said that there was other weaponry found in the back, but again, we have not been able to independently confirm that. Again, a lot of these reports, we need to be very cautious about. Im here with phil mudd, formerly with the fbi and with the cia. Phil, just in terms of the investigation, you were talking earlier about how this is really kind of two tracks. Not only looking at the incident that did occur, but what may occur or what other network may be out there. Actually, before we go to you, phil, we have joining me by phone, the democratic president ial presumptive president ial nominee, secretary Hillary Clinton. Secretary clinton, thanks very much for being with us. First of all, what do you make of the fact this is the third major terror attack in france in the last year and a half with multiple casualties, first Charlie Hebdo, then the attacks in paris in november, now this . Well, first, anderson, let me just say that i am sick at heart about whats happened to the french people. This was a horrific attack. While as you know so well, friends and family were celebrating french history and culture. It reminds us very vividly and tragically that we have to stand with our allies and not abandon them and we need to strengthen our alliances, including with nato, not undermine them. Clearly, what is happening is terrorist groups are seeing that they have opportunities inside france for both homegrown terrorism and importing terrorists, and i have proposed a series of measures to combat these kinds of attacks, including launching an intelligence surge and the french and our european friends through the eu, through nato, individual nations, have to be willing to work with us to try to get better intelligence that will help them and also help us prevent attacks. Assuming this was a group like isis or somebody who is sympathetic to isis, whether they have had any direct contact with the organization, from everything we have learned about whats happening in iraq, there have been a number of victories on the battlefield recently by iraqi forces and Coalition Partners against isis. They are losing territory and yet, that does not seem to have any impact on the number of attacks were seeing in other countries. If anything, it seems like those attacks are escalating. Well, i think, anderson, you put your finger on part of the puzzle that we have to figure out how to undo. It is true that there has been progress on the battlefield in syria and iraq, territory is being taken back. The air strikes have been consistent, relentless. But i think its also clear that as a result, of these advances against isis, and their main headquarters in raqqah, their urgent desire to inflict terrorist attacks elsewhere has led them to accelerate, reaching out not only directly but indirectly through the radicalization online. I have been saying for months we have got to do a better job combatting them and their hateful ideology online. We need to enlist the help of more nations and institutions to do that. Donald trump was on bill oreilly, called in to bill oreillys program about an hour ago, was asked quote, would you go to congress and ask for a declaration of war. Donald trump said quote, i would, i would, this is war, unquote. Do you think thats the right response . Is this war . Well, i think its clear we are at war with these terrorist groups and what they represent. Its a different kind of war. We need to be smart about how we wage it and win it. So i think we have to look at all possible approaches to doing just that. When you say were at war, who are we at war with . Are we at war against radical jihadists . Radical islam . Who are we at war against . We are at war against radical jihadists who use islam to recruit and radicalize others in order to pursue their evil agenda. Its not so important what we call these people as to what we do about them, and i think back to our success in getting bin laden. It was important that we built the case, we got the information and that the president ordered the raid. Well here, we have an ideology, its not a nation state, and when people draw comparisons with world war, you can call this world war iii, its a very different kind of war. We could be easily misled and i would point people to read more about what the hopes and ambitions of isis happen to be. They would love to draw the United States into a ground war in syria. They actually think the end times could be hastened if we had some great confrontation in that region. So weve got to be smart about this, not get pushed or pulled into taking action that doesnt have some positive effects it needs to have. I would be very focused on intelligence surge, i would be very focused on working with our partners and allies and intensify our efforts against the idealogues who peddle radical jihadism online. One of the other things trump mentioned in the call in to fox was basically being very critical of you for wanting, he says, to increase the number of Syrian Refugees coming to this country by 550 . How do you respond to that . Is it, you know, can there be proper vetting . Is that a Real Security concern, a justifiable security concern people in america should have . Trump has said this repeatedly and has been called out for his blatant lies about it. I have said when it comes to refugees, we should only let people into this country after we have thoroughly screened them, no matter how long that takes and no matter what the pressure might be to act more quickly. I would not shortcircuit the vetting process. If were talking about women, children, orphans who are fleeing horrific violence, thats a different category than young men or people who have some record that can be ferreted out that should cause us concern. Secretary clinton, appreciate your time tonight. Great to talk to you as always, anderson. Thank you. Back with our panel. Phil mudd, what do you make of that . Obviously, look, we dont know whos behind this particular attack. Many of the attacks we have seen in the United States have been people who grew up in the United States, who are american, who are Second Generation american or third generation. When donald trump talks about concerns over Syrian Refugees and secretary clinton says they have got to be vetted, i was on the beach in lesbos i dont know how long ago, over a year ago, where i watched probably about 300 people come onshore, there were people ripping off their passports leaving them on the shore. Unless you are in contact with intelligence officials in syria where theyre coming from, which theyre not, or Police Officials, you cant really thoroughly vet somebody, can you . You cant get close to vetting somebody. There are some simple steps you can take. For example, biometrics. Do you pick up somebody at the border in turkey whose fingerprints were found on a bomb. Pretty straightforward. But theres a broader question that america has to face as youre suggesting. If someone crosses the border with a 12yearold, and says i was opposing with my wife, with my family, the syrian regime, i dont have identity documents, my family was murdered, i cant prove who i am, theres this debate in this country about how rapidly you can vet someone to ensure in a wave of thousands or potentially tens of thousands of refugees that there arent dirty refugees among them. Let me give you the simple answer. If you want to take a humanitarian gesture and allow refugees here, there is risk. To suggest whether youre republican or democrat that you can minimize risk by vetting, sidesteps the question. The answer is, you cant. You just can. Peter bergen, you have looked very closely in your last book at jihadists inside the United States and again, its often Second Generation people. Yeah. Theres a great deal of sort of nonsense that is being talked about this issue. We have taken t United States has only taken 3,000 refugees from syria. If i was a terrorist compared to about a million going to germany. Right. If i was a terrorist, pretty much the last thing id do would be posing as a syrian refugee if i was trying to get into the states. First of all, you would have to be one of the millions of people that went to jordan to a refugee camp, then you would have to be selected only 22,000 by the United Nations to be put forward to the United States as a potential person who could come to the United States and you would be reduced to a much smaller pool of 3,000 people that we have taken so far. Then you would have to go through two years of background checks. Then you would have to have all your biometrics given up. There are easier ways to attack an american target, i can tell you, which would be to simply go to some place in europe and attack starbucks or American Express office or pick your american target. As a matter of just fact, there have been no attacks by refugees in this country at all since 9 11. In fact, every lethal terrorist attack in the United States has been carried out by an american citizen or american legal permanent resident. Many of whom as you say were born in the United States and are as american as anybody else. We need to bring some facts to the table here. This is really not an important issue from a National Security perspective because it just is not happening in the way that its being portrayed. Given whats happening in nice, in europe, peter, how much of this is an issue of huge numbers of, you know, people coming from wartorn areas coming from the muslim world and either a long time ago and not assimilating, not being assimilated, not being embraced, and how much of it is more of a recent phenomenon . I think it is, you know, it is a major problem in europe. Isis is going to be destroyed, contained, choose your verb, in the next year or so where they are going to be really in a very very bad place. They may lose mosul. But the big drivers of this are regional civil war between the sunni and the shia, the collapse of arab governments around the middle east, the vast waves of immigration that are the result of these two phenomenon and the rise of european fascism, to be frank. Every single country including france where the nationalist front essentially is doing pretty well. The combination of large scale immigration and the rise of european fascism is a very toxic mix. Unfortunately, it will continue to produce events like what we have seen tonight again and again and again. Theres no easy fixes for this. Quick reminder, as you have been seeing at the bottom of the screen, we learned frances president Francois Hollande will address his nation. We will bring that to you when it happens. Right now, another witness to the attack. Jimmy and his family were on the promenade when the chaos erupted. We spoke a short time ago. Explain where you were and what you saw. When we were gathered on des anglais, we were watching the fireworks. I was with my family, my wife, my two kids, my 9yearold and 6yearold, and my brother. And we were seated at the beach watching the fireworks. Then when the whole thing finished, we were just walking on the promenade, listening to the music, live bands were playing, and just people were just having fun. Then all of a sudden, we were hearing screams, loud noises and what seemed like gun shots, fire being shot. Gunfire. And you know, people started screaming and running in different directions. And i saw a big white truck going through the pedestrian area, because the area was blocked so that cars wouldnt go through, you know, the streets. Where was the truck in relation to where you were . Was it coming toward you or passing you by . I was on the sidewalk and the truck was just passing by me on the street. Did you see at all how it got through . Because the street was blocked off, i assume there was some sort of barricade on the street. Actually, there were barricades, just trying to prevent cars from entering this pedestrian area. Then the first noises we heard were like, what seemed like the truck going through the barricades because there were loud noises but without gun shots, then gun shots were happening and then we saw the truck passing by, then also gun shots and people were trying to hide. So there were gun shots and i assume thats Police Shooting at the truck itself to try to stop the truck. That is your understanding . We were not sure. We were just hearing gun shots and trying to lay low. Just a couple of minutes earlier, i dont know, a minute earlier, my wife and kids, my wife took the kids because they were feeling sleepy and she took them towards where the incident started to try and get them into bed, because we were separated and the whole thing happened, and you know, you tend to think of you want to get to your kids but theres gun shots are happening so thank god she ran in the narrow streets with the kids. Theyre okay . Yes. Thank god. Im so happy to hear that. How long did