California student among the 84 people dead in France attack

An American student from the University of California, Berkeley, was identified Sunday as one of the 84 people killed in Thursday’s Bastille Day truck attack in the French city of Nice, according to statement from the school.

The university said the FBI informed school officials that the body of 20-year-old Nicolas Leslie of Del Mar in the San Diego area had been identified. Leslie was a junior at Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources.

“This is tragic, devastating news,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said in a statement. “All of us in the UC Berkeley family – both here on campus, and around the world – are heartbroken to learn that another promising young student has been lost to senseless violence.”

Berkeley student Tarishi Jain was among the hostages killed by militants in Dhaka, Bangladesh, earlier this month.

Berkeley students have been plastering Nice with fliers asking for any information on Leslie and other students . Members of his family had raced to Nice after the attack to search for him.

Leslie was among three foreign students studying technology entrepreneurship at the European Innovation Academy who were among those missing after the attack.

The other program participants still unaccounted for are 22-year-old Canada-based Ukrainian national Misha Bazelevsky and 21-year-old Estonian Rickard Kruusberg, Annie Seneard, a communication officer at the Nice branch of the academy, told The Associated Press.

Leslie was born in Italy and moved with his family to Del Mar, where he graduated from high school. At Berkeley, he was a member of Net Impact, a student-run consulting group that provides marketing, research and social responsibility advice to non-profits and businesses focused on environmental sustainability.

His Facebook page shows him surfing, kite boarding and scuba diving.

Three other UC Berkeley students were injured in the attack, all suffering broken bones, according to the school statement. Vladyslav Kostiuk, 23, and Diane Huang, 20, have been released from a hospital and returned to their summer dorms, while 21-year-old Daryus Medora remained hospitalized.

A vigil was planned for Monday at UC Berkeley.

A message left Sunday seeking more details from the FBI wasn’t immediately returned. Members of Leslie’s family could not be reached.