Eight people are dead and at least 11 injured after a truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists and rammed into a school bus in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.
The suspect, 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, is in police custody.
The first five people killed were identified as friends from Argentina in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation. One Belgian was also among the dead.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident an “act of terror.”
NEW YORK ― At least eight people were killed and 11 people injured Tuesday afternoon after a man drove a Home Depot rental truck down a bike path in lower Manhattan in New York City, striking several people, authorities said.
According to police, the driver went down the wrong way of a bike path on the West Side Highway, hitting pedestrians and cyclists. He then rammed into a Stuyvesant High School bus, injuring two adults and two children. (One of the children is in critical condition, a New York Department of Education official confirmed.) The suspect then exited the vehicle brandishing what police described as “imitation firearms,” later identified as a paintball gun and a pellet gun. A police officer then confronted and shot the driver, who was then transported to the hospital.
“This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror, aimed at innocent civilians,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press conference Tuesday evening.
Law enforcement officials later identified 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov as the driver.
Saipov, whom various media reported as an Uzbek national who immigrated to the U.S. legally in 2010, is now in police custody at a local hospital. Law enforcement said Saipov most recently lived in Tampa, Florida. An address from 2015 linked to Saipov’s name was also found in Stow, Ohio.
According to the New York Times and NBC, a handwritten note in Arabic declaring allegiance to ISIS was found near the suspect’s rental truck. The militant group has not yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but some of its supporters took to social media to celebrate it.
The FBI and the New York Police Department are investigating the incident.
NYPD commissioner James P. O’Neill did not confirm reports the suspect had yelled “Allahu Akbar” upon exiting the vehicle, but said the suspect had made a statement that was “consistent” with a terror attack.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at the same press conference that while there was “no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme,” NYPD planned to increase its presence throughout the city “out of an abundance of caution.”
Authorities said the city’s annual Halloween parade would still go on as planned with heightened security.
Melissa Henry, assistant director of public affairs for Bellevue Hospital Center, confirmed to HuffPost that five patients had been transported to that hospital. Security was tight at the hospital in the hours following the shooting, with many police on the scene.
At least five Argentinians were among those killed in the attack, according to the country’s ministry of foreign affairs. The first victims were identified as Hernán Mendoza, Diego Angelini, Alejandro Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi.
“The compatriots, from the city of Rosario, were part of a group of friends celebrating the 30th anniversary of their graduation from the polytechnic school of that city when the tragic event occurred,” the Argentinian government said.
One Belgian was killed in the attack, Didier Reynders, the country’s deputy prime minister, said on Twitter. Three other Belgians were also wounded.
The use of vehicles as weapons in terror attacks is a frequent tactic for extremists, who have used it to kill over 100 people in Europe in recent years. The self-described Islamic State has long advocated for its supporters to carry out such attacks, and has featured them heavily in its propaganda.
In response to such attacks, governments have considered a wide range of defensive measures, including installing protective netting that can trap tires, and putting stricter regulations on vehicle rentals. Cities have also added barriers such as concrete blocks and security bollards to protect heavily populated areas from trucks and cars.
New York City for years has been aware of the possibility of vehicle attacks, and redesigned its Times Square to add more bollards based on recommendations in 2012 from a counterterrorism official. But, as attacks in Europe have shown, it is impossible to secure every soft target and area of a city.
John Williams, a 22-year-old Brooklyn College student, said he arrived on the scene near Stuyvesant High School just after the crash had taken place. He told HuffPost he heard at least five “very fast” gunshots.
“I heard people yelling, ‘He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!’” said Williams.
Williams said he saw a man being arrested and another man, who “looked like he had been shot,” laying on the ground nearby. He described the crashed vehicle as a white pick-up truck with a Home Depot logo.
“The front was mashed in,” Williams said. “And there was smoke coming out of it.”
Ezequial Gonzalez, 18, was walking near Stuyvesant High School, where he works as a speech coach, when he heard what he thought were “just car gaskets.”
“Now they’re saying those were gunshots,” Gonzalez said. “There were police just barreling down [the street].”
Gonzalez said he tried to get into the high school, but the building was locked down. He said he could see the crashed vehicle “caved in the front” and “debris everywhere.”
“There was something on the street that looked like ― they said it was a body covered with a sheet,” he said. “Everyone was very confused.”
Gene Duffy, 43, said he saw a white pickup truck “flying down the bike path” as he was walking home from work. He told HuffPost he rushed over to the scene after hearing a woman screaming, and found victims covered in “tire tracks.”
“This one guy’s leg was ― his bones were out and the blood was out,” Duffy told HuffPost. “I looked to see if he was moving or anything, you see all the blood on his face and he was lying in a puddle of blood.”
Michael Okhravi, 29, was outside his office next to Stuyvesant High School when he heard at least five shots. He said he immediately called an Uber to flee the area. That’s when he says he saw the bodies lined up on the street.
“As I was stuck in traffic there were multiple bodies not just in one area by the high school, but even all the way up to Watts St.,” Okhravi told HuffPost. “It was just body after body.”
Okhravi said he saw four bodies in total, dead from what he said was “obviously not a gun shot” but more likely from a vehicle hitting them. He saw paramedics covering them up with sheets.
“It was at least four bodies that I saw,” he said.
Tuesday’s incident was the deadliest terror attack in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001.
Last year, a man planted two bombs in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, one of which exploded and injured 30 individuals.
There have also been multiple bombing attempts in Manhattan’s Times Square, including a plot quietly foiled by authorities last year.
This is a developing story and has been updated throughout.
Nick Robins-Early, Matt Ferner, Rebecca Klein and Hayley Miller contributed reporting.
