BBCTen people have been killed and 35 others injured after a man intentionally drove into a large crowd in New Orleans and then began firing a weapon, police have said.
Police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said the attacker drove a pickup truck along Bourbon Street “very fast … trying to run as many people as he could” at around 03:15 (08:15 GMT). He crashed barriers and then shot and injured two police officers.
She said the man was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”. Police did not disclose any information about the status of the attacker.
A witness told the BBC that he “walked past dead and injured bodies all over the street” in the aftermath.
A CBS reporter saw multiple people with injuries on the ground at the intersection of Bourbon and Canal streets.
A video confirmed as genuine by BBC Verify show a person lying on the ground and a crowd scattering as what appear to be gunshots are heard. Another shows two injured people lying in a street.
Whit Davis, from Shreveport, Louisiana, told the BBC that he had been in a bar in the Bourbon Street area when the attacker struck. He did not hear the crash and shooting as the music was too loud.
“People started running and getting under tables like it was an active shooter drill. Then the police held us in the bar for a while and when we were finally allowed to leave we were walking past dead and injured bodies all over the street,” he said.
“Everyone was just completely in shock,” he added. “I visit New Orleans frequently and have never seen anything close to this bad.”
FBI special agent Althea Duncan, who is leading the investigation, said an improvised explosive device was also found at the scene and they were working on confirming whether it was “viable”.
Jim and Nicole Mowrer, who were visiting New Orleans from Iowa, told CBS that they were in the French Quarter when they heard crashing noises down the street.
They said they saw a white truck slam through a barricade “at a high rate of speed”, then heard gunshots after the crashing noises.
“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 said.
They tried to help people they found wounded, but realised the victims had died. They said the truck hit people only about a block away from where they were walking.
The couple said the victims they saw had injuries from the truck impact, and they did not see any apparent gunshot wounds. They said they left the area once emergency responders started arriving.
Initial reports seem to indicate that a majority of the victims were locals, police said.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says in a post on X that he was “praying for all the victims and first responders on scene”.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” Landry wrote.
