Ten people are reported dead and multiple others injured after a truck drove into crowds of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans on Wednesday, Jan. 1.
In a statement, city authorities said that “The 8th District is currently working a mass casualty incident involving a vehicle that drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street.”
“There are 30 injured patients that have been transported by NOEMS [New Orleans Emergency Medical Services] and 10 fatalities.”
“Public safety partners are responding on scene. Updates will follow as they are received.”
The New Orleans Police Department told PEOPLE that the incident happened after the truck driver drove his vehicle down Bourbon Street at a high rate of speed.
He was then killed after he exchanged gunshots with the police around 3:15 a.m. local time.
CBS News cited a New Orleans Police Department spokesperson as stating “Initial reports show a car may have plowed into a group of people.” The outlet added that the incident happened as people were heading home from Bourbon Street, in the lively French Quarter of the city.
CBS News reporter Kati Weis added that a truck deliberately drove into the crowd. The driver then got out of the truck and exchanged gunshots with the police.
The incident appeared to be intentional, police said per ABC News.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called the incident “a terrorist attack” in a press conference held on Wednesday, Jan. 1.
“We do know that the city of New Orleans was impacted by a terrorist attack,” Cantrell said, per Sky News. The mayor asked for “prayers for those who have lost their lives” and also urged the public “to stay clear of eight blocks around Bourbon Street.”
Cantrell added that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter), “A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning. Please join Sharon [his wife] and I in praying for all the victims and first responders on scene.”
“I urge all near the scene to avoid the area,” he added.
CBS News cited witnesses Jim and Nicole Mowrer, who visited New Orleans from Iowa for New Year’s Day, seeing a white truck bursting through a barricade “at a high rate of speed” on Bourbon Street before they heard “gunfire” after watching the New Year’s Day fireworks in the city.
“Once the gunfire stopped we … came out into the street, and came across a lot of — several people who had been hit, [we] wanted to see what we could do to help,” they said, per the outlet.
Witness Kevin Garcia, 22, told CNN, “All I saw was a truck slamming into everyone on the left side of Bourbon sidewalk,” He said he also heard gunshots and that “a body came flying at me.”
Whit Davis from Shreveport, Louisiana, shared with the outlet that he was leaving a nightclub on Bourbon Street when saw the incident unfold. “Everyone started yelling and screaming and running to the back, and then we basically went into lockdown for a little bit and then it calmed down but they wouldn’t let us leave,” Davis, 22, said.
He recalled that he “saw a few dead bodies” and “people receiving first aid” after being let out of the nightclub by police.
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