TRUCK TERROR NEAR WORLD TRADE CENTER
At least eight dead in attack on Manhattan bike path
NEW YORK • A man in a rented pickup truck drove down a busy bike path near the World Trade Center memorial and mowed down people Tuesday, killing at least eight.
The 29- year- old driver was shot by police after jumping out of the truck with what turned out to be a fake gun in each hand. A law enforcement official said witnesses told police the attacker yelled, “Allahu akbar” — “God is great” in Arabic — as he got out of the truck.
The driver was taken into custody and was being treated in hospital for a wound to his abdomen.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called it a “lone wolf ” attack and said there was no evidence to suggest it was part of a wider plot.
Mayor Bill de Blasio added, “This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians.”
Witnesses described a scene of panic and blood, with people screaming in fear and the path strewn with mangled bicycles and bodies that were soon covered with sheets. In addition to those killed, 11 people were seriously injured, authorities said.
Police said the vehicle, a rented Home Depot truck, entered the bike path on West Street at about 3: 05 p. m., a few blocks from the new World Trade Center — the site of the deadliest terror attack in U. S. history. The van drove southward, striking cyclists and pedestrians.
Eugene Duffy, 43, a chef at a waterfront restaurant, said he was crossing West Street when he heard something, turned back and saw the white pickup on the bike path. He heard a blood- curdling scream and knew it wasn’t a Halloween prank.
“I look down and I see a white pickup truck a couple of more blocks down in the bike path,” he told CNN. “Automatically, I know something’s wrong.”
The truck later slammed into a small yellow school bus, injuring two adults and two children.
Duffy said police officers were at the scene, guns drawn, ducking behind patrol cars.
“So many police came and they didn’t know what was happening,” Duffy said. “People were screaming. Females were screaming at the top of their lungs.”
Tom Gay, a school photographer, was on Warren Street and heard people saying there was an accident. He went down to West Street and a woman came around the corner shouting, “He has a gun! He has a gun!”
Gay said he stuck his head around the corner and saw a slender man in a blue track suit running southbound on West Street holding a gun. He said there was a heavyset man pursuing him.
He said he heard five or six shots and the man in the tracksuit fell to the ground, gun still raised in the air. He said a man came over and kicked the gun out of his hand.
Uber driver Chen Yi said he saw a truck plow into people on the popular bike path adjacent to the West Side Highway.
He said he then heard seven to eight shots and then saw police pointing a gun at a man kneeling on the pavement.
“I saw a lot of blood over there. A lot of people on the ground,” Yi said.
Mayor de Blasio said the man was shot when he exited the vehicle with what turned out to be imitation firearms.
A paintball gun and a pellet gun were found at the scene, police said.
“In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person,” U. S. President Donald Trump said in a post to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.
“Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!”
Cities around the globe have been on alert against attacks by extremists in vehicles.
The Islamic State has been encouraging its followers to mow down people, and England, France and Germany have all seen deadly vehicle attacks in recent months and years.
“Unfortunately this is the new normal,” Howard Safir, a former NYPD commissioner, told the BBC. He called the bike path a “soft target”.
“In a large city, as you know in London, you can’t put bollards and protection on every street and every building.”