New York, Jan 1 (IANS) The New Year dawned with a terrorist “hell-bent on carnage” ploughing his vehicle into a crowd of celebrants in New Orleans killing 10 people and injuring 35, officials said. City Mayor LaToya Cantrell called the early morning attack on the iconic Bourbon Street, a "terrorist attack". Police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said the attacker "was hellbent on creating the carnage that he did" going through barriers to carry out the attack. The terrorist, who has not been identified, ran his white pickup truck into the crowd, got out, and shot at police who shot him dead, officials said. Two police were injured.

Reports said that an improvised explosive – a country bomb – was found nearby and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has taken over the investigation, was scouring the area to ensure there weren’t any others. A couple of suspicious packages were reportedly blasted by law enforcement. The attack took place hours before the Sugar Bowl, an annual college football game that draws a huge crowd and a vast television audience on New Year’s Day, was scheduled in the city, heightening fears.

Bourbon Street is one of the places in the US where large New Year celebrations are held and is famed for the annual Mardi Gras parade. The terrorist attack took place in the last days of President Joe Biden’s administration and three weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes over. Biden has been briefed on the incident by senior officials of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, the White House said. The President, who is in Wilmington and on his way to Camp David for the weekend, will continue to receive briefings. He called Mayor Cantrell to offer full federal support. Trump had not reacted by 10 a.m. local time.

Elsewhere in the US, New Year’s celebrations went off without incident. At the New Year Ball Drop in New York’s Times Square, hundreds of thousands of people, local and tourist, drenched in unseasonal rain revelled at the world’s biggest celebration amid heavy security. The New Orleans attack comes barely ten days after a Saudi national drove a car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg in Germany, killing five and injuring 200 people. German officials were puzzled by the attack as the alleged attacker, a doctor, had made anti-Islamist statements and suspected that he may be mentally ill.

Terrorists have used vehicles for attacks. In 2016, an Islamist terrorist rammed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and in another incident claimed by the Islamic State, 86 people were killed in Nice, France, by a man who drove into a crowd. A White Supremacist attacked a civil rights protest in Charlottesville in the US, killing one person and injuring 35 the next year.

/IANS