Ten people are dead after a car slammed into a crowd in New Orleans’ popular Bourbon Street during New Year’s Day celebrations.
In a press conference on Wednesday morning, 1 January 2024 ,New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the incident as a “terrorist attack,” urging residents to stay away from the area as it was still an active scene. The FBI, however, said it was not clear that it was a terrorist event but that an improvised explosive device was found with the suspect.
New Orleans Supreintendet of Police Anne Kirkpatrick said that the perpetrator exhibited “very intentional behavior” by slamming into the crowd and that it was not a DUI, adding that the man shot at police officers after be crashed his vehicle, leaving two officers injured. Both officers that were shot are stable, according to Kirkpatrick.
“Last night, we had over 300 officers out here, and because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator – who went around our barricades in order to conduct this. He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” Kirkpatrick added. She added that most of the casualties appeared to be local residents of the city and not tourists. “This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could.”
At least 30 more are hurt, officials say. Witness accounts recalled a speeding truck crashing into a crowd before the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with police returning fire, CBS reported. The incident occured around 3:15 a.m. local time.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has described it as a “horrific act of violence” and urged “all near the scene to avoid the area.”
The department responsible for emergency preparedness in New Orleans, said responders were attending a “mass casualty incident involving a vehicle that drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street.” It confirmed the casualty toll.
Footage circulating online shows casualties lying on the floor (@GeoffMoJo EarthCam)
Footage circulating online, which appears to show the aftermath of the incident, shows multiple lying on the floor as people run from the area.
NOLA Ready asked people to stay away from the area in a post on X. “There has been a mass casualty incident on Canal and Bourbon Street. Get yourself away from the area,” it wrote.
Famous for its nightlife, Bourbon Street was still teeming with revelers celebrating New Year’s Eve when the vehicle drove into the crowd early Wednesday morning. Additionally, the violent incident occurred while New Orleans was just hours away from hosting the AllState Sugar Bowl in the Superdome, which draws tens of thousands of college football fans from across the country.
New Orleans police said earlier this week that it would be staffed up “at 100 percent” for the celebratory festivities and the NCAA college football playoff game between Georgia and Notre Dame, adding that it called in 300 additional officers from partner law enforcement departments. It noted at the time that the department would have “a strong presence of marked and unmarked police vehicles, as well as officers on foot, bike, and horseback.”
One person who says they witnessed the incident described it on social media as the “most horrific thing I’ve ever seen.” They said they saw a “truck crashing through the barricades” before seeing it “run into a crowd” and “people flying as it hit them.”
“All I seen was a truck slamming into everyone on the left side of Bourbon sidewalk,” another witness told CNN shortly after the incident, saying he heard gunshots being fired. “A body came flying at me.”
“Everyone started yelling and screaming and running to the back, and then we basically went into lockdown for a little bit and then it calmed down but they wouldn’t let us leave,” witness Whit Davis also told CNN. “When they finally let us out of the club, police waved us where to walk and were telling us to get out of the area fast. I saw a few dead bodies they couldn’t even cover up and tons of people receiving first aid.”
New Orleans Emergency Medical Services (NOEMS) have transported the casualties to University Medical Center, Touro Hospital, East Jefferson General Hospital, Ochsner Medical Center Jefferson Campus and Ochsner Baptist Campus.
Crowds gathered to attend an open-air concert and the New Year’s countdown downtown and in the French Quarter, the most famous neighborhood in the state of Louisiana. While parties featuring drag performances and danging took place on Bourbon Street, which is near where the attack occurred, other celebrations were aimed at college football fans who came to the city for the Sugar Bowl — including a parade that had taken place on New Year’s Eve.
The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans comes two weeks after a driver rammed into a crowd of shoppers at a busy German Christmas market, leaving five people dead and hundred injured.
– Independent UK
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