“I know everybody’s interested in that word,and trying to see if we can say,‘Hey,this is a terrorist attack’. That is our goal,and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Schwartz said.

The New Orleans attack shocked Americans as they woke up to the first day of 2025,while witnesses have given harrowing accounts of the dead bodies they saw in the immediate aftermath.

One witness,identified only as Paul,told NBC News:“There’s litter all over the sidewalks,and then there were bodies laid up next to garbage cans and people rushing to give aid.”

Another witness,Jimmy Cothran,told US ABC News that he and his group ducked into a Bourbon Street nightclub when the commotion began. He later witnessed “body after body mangled just as far as you could see”.

“One gentleman crushed had tyre tracks across his back once they rolled him over,he had tyre tracks on his front. He was completely crushed,” he later said.

Bourbon Street is a historic tourist destination in the city’s French Quarter,known for attracting large crowds with its music,restaurants,clubs and “alcohol to-go” policy,which allows visitors to buy drinks from bars and roam the streets carrying them.

The city hosts the famous Mardi Gras celebration and the annual jazz festival. It has dozens of hotels that are generally filled with tourists during the US holiday season.

Many hotels in the area had to be evacuated,according to Jason Williams,the district attorney for the city-parish,leaving some tourists displaced.

As authorities continued to investigate the driver’s motives,Trump issued a statement on Wednesday morning to attack Democrats and the media.

“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country,that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media,but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones,including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”

Trump’s statement came minutes after Fox News reported unnamed sources saying the driver’s truck had a licence plate from the neighbouring state of Texas,and that the vehicle had come through the US-Mexico border town of Eagle Pass in November.

It does not appear that the same driver was in the vehicle at that time.

The incident comes two weeks after four women and a nine-year-old boy were killed,and 200 people were injured,when a man drove into aChristmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.

It also took place hours before thousands were expected in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl college football quarter-final at the nearby Caesars Superdome. The game,originally scheduled for Wednesday night at the 70,000-seat venue,has been pushed back 24 hours to Thursday.

The New Orleans superintendent of police said the city was working to ensure the area was safe. Heightened security will also be a priority when the city hosts next month’s Superbowl.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he had issued an emergency declaration to allow federal and state partners to bring in necessary resources,and had ordered mobilisation of military police to assist.

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