Susan Miller

USA TODAY

The moments were spine-chilling Thursday night near the pebbly banks of the French Riviera: A truck turned into a weapon of terror, seeming to pick up speed and slam into a crowd of Bastille Day revelers at a fireworks display.

Shaken witnesses said the vehicle appeared to accelerate and aim for the crowd on the Promenade des Anglais. It was a scene of panic and chaos with bodies strewn across the promenade. At least 84 people were killed and dozens were injured.

75 dead, 50 hurt as truck plows into Bastille Day crowd

The French Interior Ministry issued a statement saying the driver of the truck was dead. “The individual who drove the truck was neutralized,” the ministry statement read. “The investigation will determine whether he acted alone.”

Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi told BFM TV that the truck was loaded with grenades and weapons. Estrosi said the truck had been driven by someone who appeared to have “completely premeditated behavior.”

Thursday's horrific incident was not the first time France has witnessed vehicles being used to inflict casualties.

On Dec. 21, 2014, a man in Dijon, France, was arrested after running over 11 pedestrians, injuring two seriously, in five areas of the city in 30 minutes. Witnesses said the man shouted "Allahu Akbar," the Islamic expression for "God is great."

The attack came one day after a stabbing at the Tours police station. French authorities at the time disputed whether the Dijon attack was rooted in terrorism, however. They said the man was known to police and had spent time in a psychiatric hospital.

Images from the scene of the horrific attack in Nice

One day later, a similar scene would play out, this time in the French city of Nantes. A man ran over 10 pedestrians, killing one, in a van at the city's Christmas market and then attempted suicide by stabbing himself. There were similar reports that the attacker shouted the same Islamic expression as in Dijon. But police also said they thought the man was unbalanced after they found a notebook in the van with suicidal ramblings.

Six months later, on June 26, 2015, there was another grisly attack. A delivery driver, at the wheel of a van with his boss inside — whom police say he earlier decapitated — gained entrance to the grounds of a gas factory near Lyon. He drove the van into gas cylinders, injuring two people in the subsequent explosion. Yassine Salhi was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder linked to terrorism.

On Jan. 1 of this year, a man rammed his car twice into four soldiers guarding a mosque in Valence, France, injuring a soldier and an elderly man. Officials said they found jihadist propaganda on his computer but believed that he acted alone.

The U.S. knows well the horror of truck bombs. On April 19, 1995, a truck-bomb explosion outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City left 168 people dead and hundreds injured. The blast was set off by anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was executed for his crimes in 2001. His co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, received life in prison.

Until 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing was the worst terrorist attack to take place on U.S. soil.

Follow Susan Miller on Twitter: @susmiller