A bloody New Year's Eve in New Orleans. At least 10 people were killed and 30 others injured in a car-ramming attack on the night of December 31 to January 1, in this city in the southern United States. A vehicle rushed into the crowd gathered to celebrate the New Year in the “French Quarter”, a historic district of the largest municipality in Louisiana. The streets were full of people at the time of the tragedy, as people celebrated the start of the new year. On site, shocked witnesses described a chaotic scene.
Very quickly after the attack, CNN collected testimonies from people who had witnessed it. “All I saw was a truck driving towards people. A body landed towards me and I heard gunshots.”relates a young man. “I saw corpses that were not covered, another witness told CNN, and many people who were receiving care.”
“I saw dead bodies that weren't covered and lots of people receiving treatment. It was absolute chaos, I still can't believe it.”
a witness in New Orleanson CNN
A man, interviewed by the CBS television channel, recounts the scene he has just experienced. “Il [le pick-up] was driving at full speed. We were in the middle of the road, but we managed to move out of the way towards the sidewalk, then towards the front door of a building to protect ourselves. Gunshots were heard and police were seen running towards the scene of the shooting. We stayed in the hall until the gunshots stopped, describes the witness. Then we went out into the street and passed several people who had been hit. We looked at what we could do to help, but unfortunately these people were dead.”
Also on CBS, two witnesses to the attack, Jim and Nicole Mowrer, recount what they saw: “We were pretty close to where it started.”. They saw “a white truck driving at high speed”. “As we passed by, we heard gunshots and saw police running in that direction. When the gunfire stopped, we went out into the street and passed several people who had been hit. We wanted to see what we could do to help them.”
Another witness, Paul S., told ABC News that he was startled awake by the sound of what he initially thought were fireworks. “Around 3:15 a.m., we heard a 'pop, pop, pop, pop' noise followed by a noise that sounded like fireworks exploding. Then it turned out it was the 'accident.” Looking out the window, he said he saw “Bricks littering the sidewalk, bodies lying next to trash cans and people rushing to help.”
On a local television channel, WWL-TV, a rescuer talks about what he experienced: “We heard very loud 'bangs' coming from a nearby place where there was a party. And when we looked out the window, we saw a lot of people lying on the ground, and a car 'walked away.'
“We immediately ran down to the street to see if there were people to help. But unfortunately, some were dead, others were carried into the hotel to give them first aid. It was horrible.”
a rescuer present at the scene of the attackon the local television station, WWL-TV
This traumatic scene immediately brought back memories of war for this rescuer who served in the American army. “We're a group of Marine veterans and it feels like we're in Iraq again: the helicopters, the people lying on the road, not knowing exactly what to do… And we did what we did. “We had to do, we looked at who we could help. There was another person with me who also had first aid experience. Between us, we tried to help as many people as possible.
