New Orleans new year celebrations turn to terror and tragedy

New Orleans was in full swing in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.

Revellers were spilling out of bustling bars and packed clubs in the city’s French Quarter – an area often referred to as the beating heart of the city’s famous nightlife.

“It was all young kids out. Lots of 19, 20, 21-year-olds,” recalled Derrick Albert, a local DJ who plies his trade each night at the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets.

That intersection is home to a packed tourist hotel, a store selling ice cream and chocolate fudge and restaurants selling oysters and daiquiris in large plastic to-go cups.

But at about 03:15 (09:15 GMT), the youthful revelry turned to terror as a man – identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas resident and US Army veteran – drove a rental truck at high-speed into a crowd.

He killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens, some seriously.

Grainy CCTV footage shows the moment the attack began, with the white pick-up truck driving up Canal Street past other vehicles, before taking a right on to Bourbon Street, swerving around a police car, speeding up suddenly and ploughing into the crowds.

“We just heard this squeal, the rev of an engine and a huge, loud impact,” Kimberly Stricklen, a visitor to New Orleans, told Reuters. “Then, the people, screaming. The sound of crunching metal and bodies.”

The vehicle would continue for three blocks – striking more bystanders along the way – until the driver crashed and came to a stop near the corner of Bourbon and Conti streets.

Jabbar then left his vehicle and shot at police. He was killed by their return fire.