10 people killed, more than 30 injured after a vehicle crashed into a crowd in New Orleans

Ten people were killed and 35 injured after a pickup truck driver plowed into a crowd on New Orleans’ historic Bourbon Street early Wednesday, officials said.

After speeding into a crowd of pedestrians, the suspect was killed in a shootout with police, the FBI announced on Facebook.

“The FBI is the lead investigative agency and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism,” the federal agency said.

The crash happened around 3:15 a.m. local time at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon streets as a large crowd gathered to celebrate the New Year in the city’s French Quarter, the city said in a statement.

At a press conference, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a “terrorist attack,” and the city’s police chief said the act was clearly intentional.

police cont. Anne Kirkpatrick said the man in the truck was driving down Bourbon Street “very fast” and “trying to run over as many people as he could. It was not a high-pressure situation.”

“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did,” she told reporters.

Most of the victims were “locals versus tourists,” she said.

The two officers who were shot after the driver got out of the truck are in stable condition, Kirkpatrick said.

Police recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle, an official told The Associated Press.

Alethea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said officials are investigating the discovery of at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.

NOLA Ready, the city’s emergency response agency, said the injured were taken to five local hospitals.

‘Everyone started shouting’

Whit Davis, 22, told CNN that he was leaving a nightclub at the time of the attack. “Everybody started yelling and screaming and running in the back and then we basically shut down for a while and then it calmed down but they wouldn’t let us leave,” Davis said.

“When they finally let us out of the club, the police waved us where to walk and told us to get out of the area quickly. I saw several dead bodies that they couldn’t even cover and a bunch of people getting first aid,” he said.

US President Joe Biden said that he was continuously informed about what happened throughout the morning.

“I am grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing more deaths and injuries,” Biden said in a statement.

“I have directed my team to ensure that all resources are available as federal, state and local law enforcement work diligently to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no longer a threat of any kind.”

The incident occurred hours before the start of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held at the city’s Caesars Superdome, with thousands expected to be in attendance.

Kirkpatrick said police officials will be working to ensure security at the Sugar Bowl, indicating the game will go on as scheduled.

“We don’t want to shut down our economy. We don’t want to shut down these events that we celebrate every year,” New Orleans City Council member Oliver Thomas told CBC News.

“But we’re going to have to do something different, especially given the world we’re in today,” he said.

“How do we keep people safe? How do we still enjoy ourselves. These things seem to be threatened by some very evil people hell-bent on destruction.”