Pope Francis has prayed for the end of “terror and death” of innocents as he expressed closeness to families and all of France mourning the loss of lives, “even of many children”, in the Nice lorry attack.

Francis told the public in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that “sorrow is great in our hearts” for the massacre in the southern French city last week, and prayed that God sustain the wounded and comfort relatives.

He prayed that God “disperse every plan for terror and for death, so that no man dare spill more blood of his brother.”