Ten people are dead and dozens more injured after an SUV ploughed into revellers celebrating New Year and witnesses say the driver then began firing shots.
The incident occurred at the intersection of Bourbon Street, famous for its many bars and clubs, and Iberville at around 3.15am local time in New Orleans, Louisiana, with multiple people seen lying on the ground injured, reports the MIrror.
Witnesses said that a truck crashed into revellers at high speed, and then the driver got out and started firing a weapon before cops returned fire.
New Orleans Police Department has so far stated that a truck is reported to have run down the group on the famous street. It was unknown how many people were killed or injured. However, unconfirmed reports on social media suggested a “mass casualty” incident.
Footage shows fleets of emergency service vehicles on Bourbon Street which has been closed and paramedics remain at the scene. Images also show utter devastation, with injured people lying on the ground and one clip appears to hear sounds of gunfire.
A New Orleans Police spokesperson told CBS News “initial reports show a car may have ploughed into a group of people. Injuries are unknown but there are reported fatalities.”
Jim Mowrer, a US Army vet who says he was on Bourbon Street with his wife at the time of the incident, said on X that he saw an SUV ‘speeding’ down the road and ‘running people over’. Thousands of people were in the area for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
There was a golden-lit fleur de lis, a public concert stage as punters enjoyed themselves along Bourbon Street.
Police quickly locked down the scene.
(Image: X)
People excitedly waited on the final countdown to 2025 in the French Quarter with a chilly night of music, laughter, beverages and fireworks along the curve of the Mississippi River before the tragedy unfolded just a few hours later. Tourism officials said hotel occupancy rates were high in the city, both for the holiday and also from an influx of college football fans in the city for Wednesday’s Allstate Sugar Bowl between the University of Georgia and Notre Dame University.
A witness described it as the “most horrific thing I’ve ever seen” with bodies on the ground after the vehicle struck them. They wrote on social media: “Yeah it was crazy. I was walking south on bourbon street, probably 75 yds away from canal st and I heard a loud noise. As I looked up I could see a truck crashing through the barricades.
“Right when I saw it I got ran into by several people, but I pushed them off and as I did the truck flew by me. I watched it speed by wondering if it was going to swerve and hit me and contemplating if I was going to have to jump out of the way. It sped by me and I watched it run into a crowd and then I saw people flying as it hit them. Everyone was running away, so I did as well, as I exited bourbon st onto canal, I could see at least two people seriously injured, unconscious and bloody. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen.
And a journalist wrote on X: “NOPD source states that as many as 10 fatalities after driver in pickup truck plowed into crowd on Bourbon Street. Multiple more injuries. Mayor and police chief on scene.” Another working for WWLTV stated : We’re hearing reports of numerous people being my struck by a vehicle and shots being fired in the French Quarter. The Orleans Parish Coroner has arrived on Canal St. “
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