At least 15 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a man smashed a pick-up truck into a crowd of New Year’s revellers in New Orleans in the United States.
The attack occurred at about 3:15am (09:15 GMT) on Wednesday near the intersection of Canal and Bourbon streets, a busy pedestrian thoroughfare in the heart of New Orleans’s historic French Quarter.
The suspect was identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas state and a US military veteran.
The suspect drove a white Ford F-150 electric pickup into a group of pedestrians, then exited and was killed in a shootout with police – two of whom were wounded. Two homemade bombs were found and neutralised, the FBI said.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters.
Driving at “very high speed” and in a “very intentional” manner, “he was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” Kirkpatrick said.
Videos shared online and verified by Al Jazeera show people fleeing the scene of the incident after gunshots rang out.
Officials said a manhunt was underway, with FBI agent Alethea Duncan warning that authorities “do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible”.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said: “We’re hunting some bad people down.”
The FBI said it was conducting search warrants in New Orleans “and other states”. Earlier, the bureau’s field office in Houston said it was conducting activity “related” to the New Orleans attack.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera correspondent Rosiland Jordan said while the FBI was treating the incident as “an act of terrorism”, the bureau has yet to reveal the full extent of its evidence.
“Motive is the big question,” Jordan said. “They don’t know whether this person had any ulterior motives. They don’t know if this person had any assistance. They don’t know, if indeed this had been planned, how long this incident had been in the planning.”
US President Joe Biden described the attack as “despicable”. He also said law enforcement agencies were probing any possible links between the New Orleans attack and an explosion later on Wednesday of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a hotel owned by US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas that killed one person.
Meanwhile, FBI also said an ISIS (ISIL) flag was found in Jabbar’s truck, adding that it was trying to determine if he was associated with any “terrorist” organisations.
Biden said the FBI informed him that the suspect had posted videos on social media, indicating that he was inspired by the ISIS armed group, expressing “a desire to kill”.
