BERLIN — The Thursday night attack in Nice, France, that left 84 dead may be the lowest tech, easiest entry point mass killing in recent history. And that’s cause for concern.

As Magnus Ranstorp, an international terror expert at the Swedish Defense College noted, “No training has to go into an attack like this. You get into the truck and turn the ignition and you’re armed and deadly. This is DIY terrorism, do-it-yourself terrorism.”

Whether the attack was an act of international terrorism was not known this morning, as the cleanup along Nice’s famous Promenade des Anglais began. But whatever the motivation, it was horrific and deadly. French President Francois Hollande called it a “monstrosity.”

“This attack has all the elements to be called a terrorist attack, it was once again an attack of incredible violence” he said in an address to the nation. “It is clear we have to do everything in our power to fight this terror plague.”

The attack began around 11 p.m. as the crowds that had massed along Nice’s wide promenade and Mediterranean Sea beaches to watch the Bastille Day fireworks began to head home.

The attacker was identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old French-Tunisian with a police record, but no known terror ties. The French newspaper Le Monde said he had recently been charged for a fight after a traffic dispute. In the truck, Le Monde said, police found a plastic pistol, two plastic rifles and an “inactive” grenade.

Witnesses described him zig-zagging his white truck back and forth and running down panicked pedestrians.

Others said early in the attack, police on motorcycles tried to get into the truck, and shot at the driver, but failed to stop him. Videos of the attack show police running after the truck on foot. At least 18 bullets struck the windshield, photos of the truck after the attack show.

In all, the attacker traveled a little more than a mile through the crowd. Police killed him when he left the truck to shoot into the crowd.

Nice has been on high terror alert since February. A local government official of the Alp-Maritimes region recently noted that security officials were prepared for nuclear, chemical and bacteria weapons, and were rigorously checking ships in the harbor; attacks from the sea were of particular concern, he said.

There was no mention of trucks.

The attack is the third terror-style mass killing in France since January 2015, when attackers believed to be affiliated with al-Qaida’s Yemen-based branch attacked the offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly satirical newspaper. Then on Nov. 13, attackers claimed 130 lives in shooting sprees at cafes and a concert venue that were quickly claimed by the Islamic State.

In both attacks, at least some of the attackers had been known to French anti-terror forces and had been on terror watch lists.