Some 45 people are reported injured in a stampede in a French Riviera resort when holiday-makers and locals thought explosions were a terror attack. Café tables were overturned as a panicked crowd rushed to take shelter from what they believed was gunfire late on Sunday night in Juan-les-Pins.

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Video footage showed tables and chairs overturned as screaming customers fled the terraces of cafés and restauarants near the beach in the resort that is famous for its nightlife and annual jazz festival.

Emergency services treated 45 people for slight injuries at the scene, according to Nice Matin newspaper, some in restaurants, and police cordoned off the town centre.

CCTV footage was being examined Monday morning to establish the cause of the incident - either firecrackers thrown from a car or a vehicle backfiring, according to eyewitnesses.

France is on edge after terror attacks both last year and this year, including the massacre on nearby Nice's seafront on Bastille Day.

There was similar panic in New York's John F Kennedy airport on Sunday because of unfounded reports of shots being fired, leading to evacuations and huge flight delays.

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