At least 10 dead as vehicle crashes into crowd in New Orleans

In the early hours of this morning, a vehicle ploughed into a crowd on Bourbon Street, a popular tourist district in New Orleans.

US news outlet CBS News reported that the truck crashed into the crowd at high speed, and the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with police returning fire.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell says the city was “impacted by a terrorist attack”. Moreover, the Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, condemned the crash on Bourbon Street, calling it a “horrific act of violence”.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the man who drove the vehicle tried to “run over as many people as he possibly could”. The driver “was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”, Kirkpatrick told a news conference.

The city of New Orleans has previously experienced shootings and cars colliding with crowds during parade routes.

In November, local media reported that at least two people were killed and 10 others wounded in two separate shootings along a parade route that was attended by thousands.

In February 2017, a pickup truck driven by a man who the police said appeared to be highly intoxicated drove into a crowd of people watching the Mardi Gras parade, injuring more than 20 people.