The attack happened around 3am local time
(FOLHAPRESS) – A man threw a car into a crowd this Wednesday (1st) on a tourist street in New Orleans, in the United States, killing at least ten people and injuring more than 35 in the early hours of 2025, according to local authorities. He was killed by police soon after.
The attack happened around 3am local time. According to police, a man wearing “military equipment” accelerated a pickup truck at people celebrating New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street, a famous street in the so-called French Quarter, one of the city’s main tourist attractions.
After running into the crowd, the driver got out of the vehicle firing a firearm, with police officers shooting back – due to New Year’s celebrations, more than 300 police officers were patrolling the city at the time of the attack.
New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said the man struck two officers as he exited his vehicle and was “completely determined to cause the carnage and destruction he did.” The police are in stable condition.
The FBI, the American federal police, reported that the driver was a US citizen born in the state of Texas and that he carried with him a flag of the Islamic State, the terrorist group active in the Middle East.
The agency also said that it found and neutralized two homemade bombs and that it believes that the person responsible for the attack did not act alone.
The mayor of New Orleans, Democrat LaToya Cantrell, called what happened a terrorist attack. Louisiana governor, Republican Jeff Landry, said in a post on X that “a terrible act of violence took place on Bourbon Street,” urging people to avoid the area.
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden was informed of the attack and is in contact with local authorities, having spoken by phone with Cantrell and offering “the full support” of the federal government.
“I asked my team to use every available resource throughout the authorities’ work to understand what happened as quickly as possible and make sure there is no longer any threat,” Biden said in a statement.
US Secretary of Justice Merrick Garland, who is also responsible for the FBI, said government security agencies will act in the case of terrorism.
“My heart is broken for all those who started the year learning that their loved ones lost their lives in this terrible attack,” he said.
Donald Trump, who assumes the US Presidency on the 20th, said that his future government “will fully support the city of New Orleans as it recovers from this act of pure evil” and linked what happened to illegal immigration, despite there being no information of that the perpetrator of the attack was an immigrant.
“When I said that criminals coming into our country are much worse than the criminals already here, the Democratic Party and the fake news media have constantly refuted that statement, but it turns out it is true,” Trump wrote, despite what We already know about the case.
The local police chief said most of the victims in the attack were New Orleans residents, not tourists. The city’s economy depends on tourism, motivated by the region’s history as the birthplace of jazz and carnival celebrations.
Furthermore, New Orleans is known for organizing major events – the Super Bowl, the end of the American football season and one of the biggest sporting events in the world, is scheduled to take place there in February.
Similar incidents have hit the city in the past. In November 2024, two people died and ten were injured in a shooting during a parade.
In February 2017, a man hit a crowd of tourists with a pickup truck, injuring more than 20 people. According to police, he had used a large amount of drugs.
