Eight people have been killed and 11 others wounded after a driver struck pedestrians and cyclists along a bicycle path near the World Trade Centre in lower Manhattan, before crashing into a school bus.
The suspect then got out of the rented truck brandishing two “imitation weapons”, and was heard shouting “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” before he was shot in the abdomen by a police officer.
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“This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The suspect was identified by two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation as 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. According to CNN, “he is from the central Asian nation of Uzbekistan and came to the United States in 2010”.
US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to denounce the attack, appearing to attribute the deaths to Islamic State.
There are conflicting reports of a note being found at the scene, with the New York Times reporting “handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck that indicated allegiance to the Islamic State”, while CNN says the notes were written in English.
“Officials in New York said additional resources were being deployed around the city, where children would be on the streets late into the evening to celebrate Halloween,” The Guardian says.