After a car ran into a crowd in New Orleans on the night of the year’s turn, US authorities do not rule out an accident. New Orleans’ Mayor LaToya Cantrell spoke in an initial statement in the early morning of Wednesday, referring to a “terror attack”.
The investigations are still ongoing, and citizens should keep a distance from the crime scene. The FBI took over the investigations, but with the mayor’s assessment that it is a “terror” case, there are still some uncertainties, as a federal agency representative in the same press conference said that it is not a “terrorist event”, but improvised explosives were found, which are now being examined.
However, it seems that the intention is already clear. A police spokesperson said that it was not a “drunken driving” incident. A man drove a pickup truck at very high speed along the legendary Bourbon Street and tried to run over as many people as possible, the spokesperson said. The attacker then opened fire on police and shot two officers, whose condition is stable. No further information was given about the attacker.
It was also confirmed that at least 10 people died in the incident and at least 26 people were taken to hospitals with injuries.
The incident occurred at 3:15 a.m. local time (10:15 a.m. German time), when the Bourbon Street was crowded with people due to the New Year’s celebrations.