New Orleans latest: Car ‘plows’ into crowd on busy Bourbon Street with at least one dead

The FBI has taken over the investigation in New Orleans and said it is not a terrorist attack.

Special agent Althea Duncan said that “improvised explosive devices” were found at the scene and the public should stay away from the area.

She added: “This is not a terrorist event.”

Two police officers were shot by the attacker and are receiving treatment in hospital, Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick has told a press conference.

She said the attacker fired on officers after he crashed his vehicle. Both officers are both stable and receiving medical treatment.

Superintendent Kirkpatrick said the perpetrator was “hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell says the exact details of the incident are under investigation and that she has been in direct contact with the White House.

At a press conference she asked “for prayers for those who have lost their lives”, and urged the public to avoid the eight blocks around Bourbon Street, saying a “unified command is in place”.

The incident came toward the end of New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans and hours before the kickoff of the AllState Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held in the city’s Caesars Superdome, with thousands expected to be in attendance.

This year game features the University of Georgia and the University of Notre Dame.

The 30 people injured when a driver hit a crowd on Bourbon Street have been sent to the following hospitals, according to the city’s disaster preparedness campaign, NOLA Ready:

• University Medical Center
• Touro Hospital
• East Jefferson General Hospital
• Ochsner Medical Center Jefferson Campus
• Ochsner Baptist Campus

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has urged people to avoid the area and said both him and his wife are “praying for all the victims” on the scene.

In a post on X, he said: “A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning.

”Please join Sharon and I in praying for all the victims and first responders on scene. I urge all near the scene to avoid the area.”

The city of New Orleans emergency preparedness campaign (NOLA Ready) has warned people to stay away from Bourbon Street and Canal after the incident.

“There has been a mass casualty incident on Canal and Bourbon Street. Get yourself away from the area,” Nola Ready says in a post on X.

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.

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.