DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
At least 30 injured after vehicle plowed overnight into a New Year’s crowd on the famed Canal and Bourbon Street.
At least 10 people have been killed and 30 injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd in Louisiana state’s New Orleans, the city’s emergency preparedness agency says.
Following Wednesday’s incident on Canal and Bourbon Street, the New Orleans emergency preparedness programme, or NOLA Ready, advised people to stay away from the area.
Earlier, CBS News, citing witnesses, reported that a truck had crashed into the crowd at high speed, and then the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with police returning fire. New Orleans mayor said the incident was a “terrorist attack”.
The New Orleans police said they were responding to the “mass casualty incident”, including deaths.
“The 8th District is currently working [on] a mass casualty incident involving a vehicle that drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street. There are 30 injured patients … and 10 fatalities,” NOLA Ready said in a statement.
Video obtained of the mass shooting in New Orleans, Bourbon Street. pic.twitter.com/sVIDSwpRhO
— F̳̿͟͞l̳̿͟͞i̳̿͟͞c̳̿͟͞k̳̿͟͞ (@Flick1_) January 1, 2025
Videos shared online and verified by Al Jazeera show people fleeing the scene of the incident towards safety after gunshots ring out.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, said on X, urging people to stay away from the area where the attack took place.
The injured have been taken to at least five different hospitals, according to NOLA Ready.
The incident came towards the end of New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans and hours before the kickoff of the Allstate Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held in the city’s Caesars Superdome, with thousands expected to be in attendance.
New Orleans has seen shootings and cars colliding with crowds at past parades.
In November 2024, two people were killed and 10 others injured in two separate shootings along a New Orleans parade route and celebration attended by thousands, local media reported.
In February 2017, a pickup truck driven by a man who police said appeared to be highly intoxicated plowed into a crowd of spectators watching the main Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, injuring more than 20 people.