New Orleans, United States:

The celebratory atmosphere of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, long an American byword for indulgence and revelry, was dimmed Wednesday as residents and visitors alike reeled from a deadly truck attack on New Year’s crowds. Several square blocks of the main entertainment district were blocked off after the attack, in which authorities said a US military veteran plowed a pickup truck into pedestrians, killing at least 15 people and leaving a tear in the heart of the city known as the Big Easy. 

“We’re all numb,” Ken Williams, a Creole chef who grew up in New Orleans and moonlights as a candy seller in the city’s usually raucous French Quarter, told AFP. 

“Everybody is feeling shocked about what happened,” the 65-year-old added. “Some people are going to just try and drink it off — shake the fright off, you know?”

Williams said he was fortunate to have headed home about 1:30 am Wednesday, some 90 minutes before the carnage began.

Dwayne Perkins, 22, made the decision to stay out late, and said he saw the truck take off down Bourbon Street at high speed, leaving a trail of destruction. 

“If the cops were doing their jobs last night, this would have never happened,” said Perkins, who lives in New Orleans. 

He admonished the police force for allowing a private vehicle to enter a street that is for pedestrians only during times of celebration.

His coping mechanism in the aftermath? “Getting drunk and drowning out the pain” of the tragedy he witnessed.

The French Quarter normally teems with celebrants seeking live music and exploring art galleries. It is also ground zero for the city’s debaucherous nightlife and has become a world-renowned hub for rambunctious partying.

New Year’s Eve was particularly busy, as celebrating crowds were boosted by sports fans ahead of the Sugar Bowl college football game which had been due to kick off Wednesday night in the stadium known as the Superdome. 

Also Read | “Horrified”: World Leaders React To New Orleans Attack That Killed 15

Lives ‘at stake’

Tens of thousands of fans of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Georgia had converged on the city, packing the French Quarter streets and bars ahead of the playoff — which now has been postponed to Thursday night. 

Sugar Bowl ticketholder Jill Davenport of Richmond, Virginia told AFP she and her family, fresh from watching New Year fireworks, had mulled a walk into the French Quarter to see live music.

“Frankly, better heads prevailed at 1:00 in the morning” and they went back to the hotel. “We’re very fortunate we made that decision,” she said.

“It feels like we have these tragedies more and more frequently, and it’s scary,” she said. 

Davenport, 55, grieved for the relatives of those killed, but she also expressed concern for the bars and other businesses that rely heavily on tourism.

“It has a lot of economic effect on this city… For these restaurants and bars to all of a sudden shut down, that could be make-or-break for them.”

Still, bars outside the roped off blocks where the FBI was conducting its investigation were drawing customers. Football fans strolled the streets. An accordion player’s zydeco music livened up a nearby alleyway.

One street musician who asked not to be named said business had plummeted.

“We should be making money” at this time of year, he said. Instead, crowds have thinned.

Now he worries for his city, where he could never imagine anything like this deadly attack, “not in a million years.”

Williams, the chef, said New Orleans “is going to have to change” by dramatically boosting its security operations to accommodate the hosting of major events including Mardi Gras celebrations, Jazz Fest and, on February 9, the American football Super Bowl championship.

“Too many people’s lives are at stake,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Orleans, United States:

The New Orleans attack suspect, identified by the FBI as 42-year-old US citizen Shamsud-Din Jabbar, appeared to be a real estate agent from Texas who served for years in the military but experienced financial difficulties and divorce. In a video posted on YouTube four years ago, Jabbar — speaking with a southern US accent — boasted of his skills as a “fierce negotiator” as he advertised his property management services to potential clients.

The Pentagon said Jabbar had served in the army as a human resource specialist and an IT specialist from 2007 to 2015, and then in the army reserve until 2020. 

He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 until January 2010, an army spokesperson said, adding that he held the rank of Staff Sergeant at the end of his service. Earlier the FBI had said it believed he was honorably discharged.

Criminal records reported by The New York Times show that Jabbar had two previous charges for minor offenses — one in 2002 for theft and another in 2005 for driving with an invalid license. 

Jabbar was twice-married, according to the newspaper, with his second marriage ending in divorce in 2022, when he detailed experiencing financial problems in an email to his wife’s lawyer.

“I cannot afford the house payment,” he reportedly wrote, adding that his real estate company had lost more than $28,000 in the previous year, and that he had taken on thousands in credit card debt to pay for lawyers.

A man named Abdur Jabbar, in Beaumont, Texas, told The New York Times he was the suspect’s brother and described him as “a sweetheart really, a nice guy, a friend, really smart, caring.”

He said the suspect had converted to Islam at a young age, but that “what he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.”

President Joe Biden told reporters that, hours before the attack, Jabbar shared videos online that indicated he was “inspired by ISIS,” citing information from detectives and using another name for the Islamic State armed group.

A black flag linked to the group was also found in the vehicle used in the attack, the FBI said. 

Georgia State University confirmed to AFP that a person named Shamsud-Din Jabbar attended the university from 2015-2017, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer systems. 

In his YouTube video — seen by AFP but later removed by moderators — Jabbar spoke highly about his time serving in the US military.

He said that with this experience, he “learned the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting I’s and crossing T’s to make sure that things go off without a hitch.”

At least 15 people were killed and dozens wounded when Jabbar allegedly drove a truck at high speed into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans.

Authorities said he crashed the vehicle, then opened fire and was killed in a shootout with police.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A U.S. Army veteran driving a pickup truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group wrought carnage on New Orleans’ raucous New Year’s celebration, killing 15 people as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police.

The FBI said it is investigating the attack early Wednesday (January 1, 2025) as a terrorist act and does not believe the driver acted alone. Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle, along with other devices elsewhere in the city’s famed French Quarter.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI found videos that the driver had posted to social media hours before the attack in which he said he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressed a desire to kill.

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre mayhem of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. A college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome was postponed until Thursday.

Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barreling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air.”

“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” said Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed.

“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.

The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, Kirkpatrick said, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, and said it is working to determine his potential associations with terrorist organizations.

“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said at a news conference.

Investigators found multiple improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.

The bulletin, relying on preliminary information gathered soon after the attack, also said surveillance footage showed three men and a woman placing one of the devices, but federal officials did not immediately confirm that detail and it wasn’t clear who they were or what connection they had to the attack, if any.

Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl in February.

Jabbar was killed by police after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two were shot and are in stable condition.

Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

There were also deadly explosions in Honolulu and outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump. Mr. Biden said the FBI is looking into whether the Las Vegas explosion was connected to the New Orleans attack but had “nothing to report” as of Wednesday evening.

A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed. The intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said he was wearing a ballistic vest and helmet. The flag of the Islamic State group was on the truck’s trailer hitch, the FBI said.

“For those people who don’t believe in objective evil, all you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning,” U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said. “If this doesn’t trigger the gag reflex of every American, every fair-minded American, I’ll be very surprised.”

Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

Hours after the attack, several coroner’s office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry urged people to avoid the area, which remained an active crime scene.

“We looked out our front door and saw caution tape and dead silence and it’s eerie,” said Tessa Cundiff, an Indiana native who moved to the French Quarter a few years ago. “This is not what we fell in love with, it’s sad.”

Nearby, life went on as normal in the city known to some for a motto that translates to “let the good times roll.” At a cafe a block from where the truck came to rest, people crowded in for breakfast as upbeat pop music played. Two blocks away, people drank at a bar, seemingly as if nothing happened.

Biden, speaking from the presidential retreat at Camp David, called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act.” Addressing the victims and the people of New Orleans, he said: “I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you as you mourn and as you heal.”

“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said in a statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”

The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence and the deadliest IS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years.

FBI officials have repeatedly warned about an elevated international terrorism threat due to the Israel-Hamas war. In the last year, the agency has disrupted other potential attacks, including in October when it arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma for an alleged Election Day plot targeting large crowds.

Police attend the scene where a pickup truck drove into a large crowd on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. January 1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A driver in a pickup truck who officials said was “hell-bent on carnage” sped through a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter district, killing 10 and injuring 30 in an act being investigated as a New Year’s Day terrorist attack.

The attack occurred around 3.15 a.m. Wednesday (January 1, 2025) along Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year’s Eve parties, and with crowds in the city ballooning in anticipation for the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome later in the day.

“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” said Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick. She said police officers would work to ensure safety at the Sugar Bowl, indicating that the game would go on as scheduled.

“It was very intentional behaviour. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” Ms. Kirkpatrick said.

Investigators have found a suspected improvised explosive device at the scene of a deadly truck ramming in New Orleans, the FBI said.

“We are working on confirming if this is a viable device or not,” Special Agent Alethea Duncan told a news conference after the attack.

At that hour, the area would been packed with revellers celebrating New Year in the French Quarter district, renowned for its bars, restaurants and jazz history.

CBS News television reported witnesses saying a truck rammed into the crowd before its driver jumped out and started exchanging gunshots with police.

A white truck crashed through a barricade “at a high rate of speed,” witnesses Jim and Nicole Mowrer told CBS.

“Once it was past us, we did hear gunfire, saw police running that direction,” Nicole Mowrer said.

“Once the gunfire stopped, we stayed in the alcove until the gunfire stopped, 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.

Authorities gave no immediate indication as to whether the car ramming was deliberate or any other indication as to the cause.

Policing was heavy over the New Year’s, according to the city, as authorities braced for the crowds.

The city police department had announced staffing at “100 percent, with an additional 300 officers assisting from partner law enforcement agencies,” including on horseback and using unmarked units.

The iconic French Quarter listed special deals for New Year’s, including LGBTQ parties and drag cabaret near where the incident took place.

(Inputs from AFP and AP)

At least 10 people are feared dead and 30 suffered injuries after a pickup truck ploughed into a crowd in the southern US city of New Orleans on New Year’s Day. Some reports said that the driver of the truck also fired at the crowd and exchanged gunfire with the police.

Officials said a crowd was celebrating when the pickup truck drove into it at high speed at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Street in a part of the city known as the French Quarter. 

NOLAREADY: There has been a mass casualty incident on Canal and Bourbon Street. Get yourself away from the area. Visit https://t.co/AyuRn38guC for details.

— NOLA Ready (@nolaready) January 1, 2025

“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 and 10 fatalities.  Public safety partners are responding on scene,” New Orleans’ emergency preparedness campaign NOLA Ready said on its website.

Police said the driver tried to hit “as many people” as possible and two police personnel were also shot and wounded.

Emergency authorities said the incident took place at approximately 3:15 am local time, news agency AFP reported. At that hour, the French Quarter, renowned for its bars, restaurants and jazz history would have been packed with revellers.

CBS News television reported witnesses saying the truck rammed into the crowd before its driver jumped out and started exchanging gunfire with police.

A white truck crashed through a barricade “at a high rate of speed,” witnesses Jim and Nicole Mowrer said. “Once it was past us, we did hear gunfire, saw police running that direction… Once the gunfire stopped, we stayed in the alcove until the gunfire stopped, 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,” Nicole Mowrer was quoted as saying in the AFP report.

New Orleans is one of the most visited destinations in the United States and the attack came shortly before the city hosts a major football game, known as the Sugar Bowl, featuring teams from the University of Georgia and Notre Dame.

The city police department had announced staffing at “100 percent, with an additional 300 officers assisting from partner law enforcement agencies,” including on horseback and using unmarked units.

The iconic French Quarter listed special deals for New Year’s, including LGBTQ parties and drag cabaret close to where the incident took place.

The incident comes days after five people were killed in a similar car-ramming attack in Germany. More than 200 people were also injured in the December 20 attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg, which was allegedly carried out by a man of Saudi origin. The attacker has been arrested and police are investigating whether he is mentally ill.