BBCTen people died and another 35 were injured in the aftermath A man deliberately drove into a large crowd in New Orleans and started firing a weapon, police said.
Police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said the attacker drove the truck down Bourbon Street “at high speed … trying to run over as many people as possible” at around 03:15 (08:15 GMT). He collided with barriers and then shot and injured two policemen.
He said the man was “determined to cause the killing of people and the damage he did”. Police did not release details about the attacker’s condition.
A witness told the BBC that he “passed dead and injured bodies all along the road” after the incident.
A CBS reporter saw several people injured on the ground at the intersection of Bourbon and Canal streets.
The video, confirmed by BBC Verify as authentic, shows a man lying on the ground and the crowd dispersing as gunshots are heard. Another shows two injured people lying in the street.
Whit Davis, from Shreveport, Louisiana, told the BBC he was at a bar in the Bourbon Street area when the attacker struck. He didn’t hear the crash and shooting as the music was so loud.
“People started running and getting under the tables as if it was a drill. The police then held us in the bar for a while and when we were allowed to leave we passed injured bodies all over the street,” he said.
“Everyone was in shock,” he added. “I visit New Orleans often and I’ve never seen anything close to this bad.”
FBI Special Agent Althea Duncan, who is leading the investigation, said that an explosive device was also found at the scene and they are busy trying to confirm if it works.
Jim and Nicole Mowrer, who were visiting New Orleans from Iowa, told CBS that they were in the French Quarter when they heard crashing noises in the street.
They said they saw a white truck speeding away at a “high speed”, then heard gunshots followed by a crash.
“We stayed in the bar until the gunfire stopped, we went out into the street, we came across many people who had been beaten, [we] we want to see what we can do to help,” said Nicole.
They tried to help the people they found injured, but they realized that the victims had died. They said the truck hit people in an area not far from where they were walking.
The couple said the victims they saw were injured as a result of the truck collision, and they did not see any gunshot wounds. When they left the area, the emergency services arrived.
Initial reports seem to indicate that most of the dead were locals, police said.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says in X’s post that he is “praying for all the victims and first responders on the scene”.
“A horrific act of violence occurred on Bourbon Street this morning,” Landry wrote.