Ten people have been killed after a car plowed into a crowd of people in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The incident took place on the city’s Canal and Bourbon Street at around 3am, as people gathered to ring in 2025.
A statement on Nola Ready said 30 people had also been injured in the mass casualty event and that emergency services are on the scene.
Witness accounts recalled a truck crashing into a crowd at high speed before the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with police returning fire, CBS reported.
Footage circulating online, which appears to show the aftermath of the incident, shows multiple lying on the floor as people run from the area.
One person who says they witnessed the incident described it on social media as the “most horrific thing I’ve ever seen”.
They said they saw a “truck crashing through the barricades” before seeing it “run into a crowd” and “people flying as it hit them”.
Driver ‘got out and opened fire’ witness claims
A witness has claimed that the driver of the vehicle got out of the vehicle and started firing a weapon after the crash, CBS News reports.
Police officers are said to have returned fire, though New Orleans Police Department has yet to confirm this.
A reporter at the scene described seeing multiple victims lying injured on the ground at the intersection of Canal Street and Bourbon Street.
Sam Rkaina1 January 2025 12:06
Police at scene of New Orleans fatal crash after reports of car driving into crowd
Sam Rkaina1 January 2025 12:02
Ten dead and 30 injured
Ten people have been killed and 30 injured after a car reportedly plowed into a group of people in New Orleans’ Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Witness accounts recalled a truck crashing into a crowd at high speed before the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with police returning fire, CBS reported.
Nola Ready, the department responsible for emergency preparedness in New Orleans, said responders were attending a “mass casualty incident involving a vehicle that drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street”. It confirmed the casualty toll.
Footage circulating online, which appears to show the aftermath of the incident, shows multiple lying on the floor as people run from the area.
Sam Rkaina1 January 2025 11:50
