(Reuters) -Not less than 10 folks had been killed and 30 or extra injured when a truck deliberately drove into a big crowd on Canal and Bourbon Road in New Orleans’ French Quarter at a excessive velocity early on Wednesday, metropolis officers mentioned.

Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick mentioned at a televised information convention a driver deliberately drove right into a crowd at round 3:15 a.m. “This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” Kirkpatrick mentioned. “He was hell bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did.”

Kirkpatrick mentioned the driving force fired at police and struck two law enforcement officials after his automobile crashed. She mentioned there have been greater than 300 officers that had been on obligation on the time of the incident. She mentioned the FBI shall be taking up the investigation.

“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, mentioned on X, urging folks to avoid the realm the place the assault happened.

The injured have been taken to a minimum of 5 completely different hospitals, in response to NOLA Prepared, the town’s emergency preparedness division.

The incident occurred on the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets throughout New 12 months’s Eve celebrations, the town mentioned in an announcement. Bourbon Road is a historic vacationer vacation spot within the metropolis’s French Quarter, recognized for attracting giant crowds with its music and bars.

A pair advised CBS Information that they heard crashing noises coming from down the road and so they then noticed a white truck slam via a barricade “at a high rate of speed”.

New Orleans has seen shootings and automobiles colliding with crowds at previous parades.

In November 2024, two folks had been killed and 10 others injured in two separate shootings alongside a New Orleans parade route and celebration attended by hundreds, native media reported.

In February 2017, a pickup truck pushed by a person who police mentioned seemed to be extremely intoxicated plowed right into a crowd of spectators watching the principle Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, injuring greater than 20 folks.