During Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, France, the nation is experiencing its third major attack since the start of 2015. Coupled with an attack on airport in Brussels, four major attacks have struck French-speaking regions of Europe in a short amount of time.
In the two previous attacks in France, and the attack on Brussels, the Islamic State group was responsible for the attacks.
The attack comes on the same day that France President Francois Hollande announced that the nation would not extend the national state of emergency past July 26.
The attack on Nice, where the death toll from Thursday's attack is in the dozens, is a bit of an outlier in location. The two previous attacks on France took place in Paris.
Unlike metropolitan areas like Paris and Brussels, Nice has a much smaller population of 350,000 people. It is a beach town and receives more than 4 million tourists a year. Nice is located roughly 250 miles south of Paris.
As of Thursday evening, 73 people had been killed in the attack on Nice.
Paris was attacked on Jan. 9, 2015 in an attack on Charlie Hebdo Magazine. In that situation, 17 people died in a series of attacks around Paris. In addition, three attackers were killed.
In November, 130 were killed as a group of Islamic State group militants attacked six different sites in Paris. Among the sites were a soccer stadium and a concert hall. French officials spent the following days tracking suspects across Europe.
A week after the attack, Brussels was locked down as mastermind Salah Abdeslam was suspected of plotting an attack on the city. He was finally arrested on March 18.
Just days after his arrest, 32 were killed in a Brussels airport by a remaining cell associated with Abdeslam.
