At least 10 people have been killed and more than 30 injured after a vehicle flying an Islamic State (IS) flag drove into a crowd in New Orleans’s tourist district in the early hours of New Year’s Day, according to officials.
The FBI said Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas, drove a Ford pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on New Orleans’s famous Bourbon Street at about 3.15am. He then got out and fired bullets at police – injuring two – before they shot him to death.
Jabbar’s truck appeared to have been rented, and agents were working to verify how he came to possess it, the FBI said. In addition to an IS flag in the back, agents found weapons as well as a “potential” improvised explosive device.
Meanwhile, a short-term rental home linked to Jabbar – in New Orleans’s St Roch neighborhood, less than two miles from the scene of the attack – was on fire Wednesday morning. The fire was first reported at 5.18am local time, just over two hours after the vehicle incident.
An emergency management source said that numerous residents in the area surrounding the home were evacuated because officials suspected there may have been explosives inside the home.
The owner of the home did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nearby, federal agents were interviewing neighbors, and bomb-sniffing dogs could be seen being led to the property.
The FBI said Wednesday it does not believe Jabbar was “solely responsible” for the deadly attack in New Orleans and asked the public for help in tracking down associates.
The area attacked on Wednesday – the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets – is at the foot of the city’s French Quarter, a popular nightlife destination that attracts both tourists and locals.
The New Orleans police superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick, said in a news conference on Wednesday morning: “It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
The senior law enforcement source briefed on the attack told the Guardian that Jabbar was equipped with a rifle, a helmet and body armor.
The FBI, which is now leading the investigation, said in a statement that it is “working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism”.
The senior law enforcement source who spoke with the Guardian said the IED found at the site of the attack was in the form of an ice chest that had been abandoned at the corner of Bourbon and Orleans streets, several blocks away from the intersection of Canal where the attack began.
According to the source, investigators suspect Jabbar had previously spent time in the military. A photo of Jabbar after he had been killed by police showed him in military-style clothing and New Orleans city council member Oliver Thomas told reporters later Wednesday that Jabbar was in military garb.
The source said the slain victims appeared to have died from both the attacker’s gunfire as well as being hit by the truck, though the local coroner’s office would not release the victims’ causes of death and identities until later.
People are advised to stay away from the area around Bourbon Street to St Ann. “We do not want anyone on Bourbon Street today,” police superintendent Kirkpatrick said, confirming that the FBI is taking over the investigation.
The police chief said the two police officers who had been shot were in stable condition at New Orleans’ University Medical Center. The police chief said most of the injured are believed to be local residents, and not visitors.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” wrote the Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, on X. “I urge all near the scene to avoid the area.”
In an afternoon news briefing, officials said the death roll from Wednesday’s attack remained at 10 at least. Congressman Troy Carter of New Orleans told ABC News that the death toll had risen to 15. The senior law enforcement source who spoke with the Guardian said investigators were preparing for the final death to be about 15.
As the sun began to rise over the city on New Year’s Day, law enforcement from a number of agencies had swarmed across the city’s French Quarter. Much of Bourbon Street was blocked off as police checked the area for secondary devices.
New Orleans’s government for years has been using bollards to prevent motorists from driving up Bourbon at particularly crowded times, including for major celebrations like New Year’s. But those bollards were down for repairs at the time of Wednesday morning’s attack.
At the intersection of Bourbon Street and Canal Street, usually a bustling tourist hub, dozens of city police cars lined the streets. Yellow police tape was wrapped around the main drag and three white vans from the parish coroner’s office were parked parallel, near to where the attack took place.
One resident, who did not want to give their name, had been asleep at their home nearby when the attacks began and said he awoke to “screams of terror” and shouts of “no!”
Jay McGuffey, 28, told the Guardian she had been visiting the city from Mississippi 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 15 people had been shot,” McGuffey said.
The witness 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.
A security camera video directed at Canal Street captured the truck at the center of Wednesday’s attack approaching Bourbon, which was blocked off by a police patrol cruiser. The truck turned right, went around the front of the cruiser, climbed the sidewalk and then sped up on Bourbon – seeming to hit people before vanishing from view of the camera, according to video of the footage circulating later Wednesday.
CBS said one of its reporters, Kati Weis, saw people on the ground with injuries. It said witnesses had told her the driver of the vehicle had fired a weapon and that police had returned fire.
CNN quoted a witness, Kevin Garcia, 22, as saying: “All I seen was a truck slamming into everyone on the left side of Bourbon sidewalk.
“A body came flying at me,” he said, adding that he had also heard gunshots.
New Orleans has postponed the Sugar Bowl that was scheduled for Wednesday evening to Thursday, a major college football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Notre Dame. It is also preparing to host the NFL’s Super Bowl on 9 February.
The city hosted a parade on Tuesday ahead of the Sugar Bowl, and according to CNN, the New Orleans police department had said it would be staffed “at 100%” during the festivities.
