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• Wed Jan 1 2025

From 1h ago 15.38 CET Suspect shot dead after exchanging gunfire with police The driver of the pickup truck was shot dead after exchanging gunfire with police, a senior law enforcement source briefed on the attack has told the Guardian. The source said the driver was equipped with a rifle, a helmet and body armor. Meanwhile here is a video report that the Guardian has published. 2:15 Car driven into crowd in New Orleans killing at least 10 people ? video Share Updated at 15.40 CET

4m ago 16.52 CET Ramon Antonio Vargas The suspect in the New Orleans mass killing appears to have been based locally ? if only temporarily. The suspect is dead and has not yet been named and very few details are known about him publicly. A senior law enforcement source briefed on the attack told the Guardian that a short-term rental home linked to the suspect in New Orleans? St Roch neighborhood, less than two miles from the scene of the incident, was on fire Wednesday morning. An emergency management source told the Guardian that numerous residents in the area surrounding the home were evacuated, because there were apparently explosives inside the home. The owner of the home did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI, which is now leading the investigation, said in a statement that ?an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others. The subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased.? The bureau added that it is ?working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism?. View image in fullscreen A coroner's van is parked on the corner of Bourbon St. and Canal St, after a vehicle raced into a crowd of revelers early on New Year's Day, in New Orleans on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. Photograph: Jack Brook/AP Share

16m ago 16.41 CET The eyewitness, Jimmy Cothran, who just spoke to CNN and has lived in New Orleans for about 15 years, said he was surprised that metal barriers that are deployed to control crowds at each spring?s Mardi Gras celebrations were not deployed on Bourbon Street during the New Year?s Eve celebrations this year. He said that only flimsy, orange plastic barriers ?that you can push with one finger? were up, not the hydraulic posts that are raised during other large crowd events and, to his knowledge, would have stopped the truck driving the distance and speed it did along the street, running people over. ?Those barricades were not up?they never raised them, that?s how this guy was able to drive down Bourbon so quickly,? he said. Cothran said he thought there would have been many fewer casualties if the metal barricades had been deployed ?because this truck cannot get around those barricades,? he said. View image in fullscreen A mounted police officer arrives on Canal Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd earlier in New Orleans, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. Photograph: Kevin McGill/AP Share

24m ago 16.33 CET A witness, a very shaken New Orleans resident, Jimmy Cothran, has been speaking with some media outlets about what he saw on Bourbon Street earlier this morning. He just gave an interview to CNN and said that he was on Bourbon Street with some friends and they ducked into a night club when, all of a sudden, some young women rushed in and started hiding under the tables, the first signs that something terrible was unfolding. He rushed out to the street and saw a horrendous scene of destruction, with bodies strewn after being run down by the suspect who drove a truck at high speed along Bourbon Street. ?It was unimaginable carnage. The disfigurement, bodies strewn, it?s something I will never forget, I saw someone twisted up, obviously deceased. We counted eight bodies very quickly in our area,? he said. Cothran added that he saw people crushed flat, with tire marks on their front or back from where they had been run down. A young woman whom moments before he had seen dancing in the street was now among the bodies. He said he was the designated driver in his group, so remembered very sharply what he saw. Choking up, he added: ?These people, they are somebody?s people and they are not going to be there this morning.? Share

31m ago 16.25 CET Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives and a Republican congressman from Louisiana, has posted on X about the tragedy in New Orleans. ?The vicious attack on innocent people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans early this morning was an act of pure evil, and justice must be swift for anyone who was involved,? he posted. He added: ?Please join us in praying for the victims, their families, and the first responders and investigators on the scene.? View image in fullscreen File photo: Mike Johnson in Washington, DC last spring. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP Share

42m ago 16.15 CET Joe Biden has made a call to the mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, offering full federal support to the city as it is plunged into a crisis. The US president is being kept updated on the investigation as it continues and on the news of casualties both among the public and police officers. It is estimated that at least 35 people were injured as well as 10 people killed as a man drove a truck on an apparent rampage down Bourbon Street amid New Year?s revelry in the early hours of today. The suspect, who is now dead, also fired shots, including striking two police officers who are now in the hospital. The injured have been dispatched to a number of area hospitals and there is currently no report on their condition or confirmation of exactly how many people were hurt. View image in fullscreen President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and grandson Beau Biden disembark Air Force One upon arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 31, 2024. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/Reuters Share

1h ago 15.54 CET One visitor to New Orleans, Jay McGuffy, 28, told the Guardian?s Oliver Laughland that she had been visiting the city and

had been in a nightclub on Bourbon Street when the incident took

place. ?We were just having fun, celebrating New Year?s, and then they told us to get out ?cause somebody had got shot. Then we heard that a truck had been through here, and fifteen people had been shot,? McGuffy said. She added that she had not been allowed into her hotel

because there were still bodies on the ground. ?How did this happen? There are like 100 cops out here?, she said. View image in fullscreen Emergency services attend the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP Share

1h ago 15.38 CET Suspect shot dead after exchanging gunfire with police The driver of the pickup truck was shot dead after exchanging gunfire with police, a senior law enforcement source briefed on the attack has told the Guardian. The source said the driver was equipped with a rifle, a helmet and body armor. Meanwhile here is a video report that the Guardian has published. 2:15 Car driven into crowd in New Orleans killing at least 10 people ? video Share Updated at 15.40 CET

1h ago 15.28 CET FBI now says event an 'act of terrorism' Following confusion from different branches of the authorities who?ve been discussing the fatal attack on the public in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year?s Day, there is now a clearer line. The FBI has just said it is investigating the tragedy ?as an act of terrorism?, Reuters now reports. Also, several media outlets and local political leaders are saying the suspect in the attack is dead. We?ll bring you more details as they emerge and are confirmed. Share Updated at 15.30 CET

2h ago 15.24 CET Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, the police commissioner of New Orleans, said a little earlier about the suspect: ?This man was trying to run over as many people as he could. He was hell bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did.? She said it was not ?a DUI thing?, ie it was not a case of a drunken driver, aka Driving Under the Influence in the legal sense, careening down the street and into people by mistake. Eyewitnesses have said that the suspect was also shooting at people while still sitting in his pick-up truck, including on police officers. There is a disagreement between authorities at the moment as to whether this should be classified as a terrorist attack. The AP reports that at the news conference earlier, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a ?terrorist attack?, but an assistant FBI agent in charge declared that is was ?not a terrorist event.? The news conference ended before authorities could reconcile the two characterizations. This will probably be clarified at the next press conference, due in about 90 minutes. Share

2h ago 15.18 CET Suspect in truck attack is reportedly dead The suspect in the New Orleans truck crash that killed 10 people and injured 30 revelers in New Orleans on New Year?s Day was killed after a firefight with police, law enforcement officials told the Associated Press. The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity Share Updated at 15.20 CET

2h ago 15.06 CET Joe Biden has been briefed on the tragedy in New Orleans earlier today. The White House said the US president had been informed of the tragedy, as has the US attorney general, Merrick Garland. The New Year?s Day attack occurred around 3.15am local time along Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year?s Eve parties, the Associated Press reports. Crowds were also ballooning in the city in anticipation for the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome stadium later in the day. Readers worldwide will remember the Superdome as the place where thousands took refuge after Hurricane Katrina decimated parts of New Orleans in the late summer of 2005. Share