A scene of horror in the middle of a night of celebration. A vehicle attack caused chaos in a tourist area of New Orleans, United States, as many people took to the streets to celebrate the New Year. At least ten people were killed and 35 others injured, according to the municipal management in charge of emergencies. An outbreak of violence shattered the euphoria, leaving the witnesses traumatized.
The attack took place in the middle of the night, around 3:15 a.m. (10:15 a.m. in France), in a crowded area, between Canal and Bourbon Street, in the historic and festive district known as the “French Quarter”. The driver of a pick-up drove into the crowd, trying to “run over as many people as he could”, “fiercely determined to cause carnage”, a police official told the press. the American city, Anne Kirkpatrick.
Witnesses told CBS News that a vehicle drove into the crowd before its driver jumped out and started firing a gun, prompting a police response. Two police officers were shot and injured during the attack, police confirmed.
“A large number of victims”
The suspect crossed a barricade “at high speed,” said a couple who were there, Jim and Nicole Mowrer, originally from Iowa. They were enjoying the festive atmosphere in the streets when they heard a collision, before seeing a white truck drive into a barricade, according to their account.
“Once he passed us, we heard gunshots, we saw the police running in that direction,” Nicole Mowrer said. “We stayed in hiding until the gunfire stopped, we went out into the street and we found a lot of people who had been hit, we wanted to see what we could do to help them,” he said. -she added.
VideoNew Orleans attack: man runs over at least 10 people before being shot
But the couple unfortunately noticed that several victims had already died. He ended up leaving the scene when help arrived. “There were a large number of victims, we tried to give first aid but most were dead,” lamented Jim Mowrer on the X network, saying he feared a “double-digit” number of deaths.
“Everyone started shouting”
“All I saw was a truck that ran into everyone on the left side of the Bourbon sidewalk,” a 22-year-old young man, Kevin Garcia, also told CNN shortly after the attack, which he directly witnessed. “A body flew towards me,” he added, adding that he had also heard gunshots.
Another witness, Whit Davis, also 22, said he found himself in the middle of the chaos as he was leaving a nightclub on Bourbon Street. “Everyone started yelling and screaming and running towards the back, then we were locked in for a little while and it calmed down, but they wouldn’t let us leave,” he recalled .
“When they finally let us out of the club, the police officers waved us on and told us to leave the area quickly. I saw some dead bodies that they couldn’t even cover and tons of people receiving first aid,” he continued. According to him, the police then asked the people to leave the scene as soon as possible.
“Simply horrible”
Local channel WWLTV also received testimony from a man who was in a hotel near the scene and rushed to try to help. “So it was a little before 3:20 this morning. We heard loud explosion noises” and from the bedroom, “we noticed that there were a lot of bodies lying on the floor,” he recalled.
“I immediately ran downstairs to see if there were people we could help. Unfortunately, some people lost their lives,” he continued. He then brought the wounded into the hotel as much as possible to take care of them. “The scene was simply horrible,” said this former Marine Corps officer, who said he had “the feeling of being back in Iraq.”
After about forty minutes, a bomb threat was triggered, according to him, leading to the evacuation of all the people present in the hotel, pushed by the police away from the perimeter of the attack. American investigators found a possible homemade explosive device at the scene, the FBI federal police said.
The authorities and law enforcement have called on residents and tourists to exercise extreme caution, urging them not to go to the area for the moment and to keep themselves informed of developments in the situation. According to two American television stations, citing police sources, the attacker died.
