Terror strikes New York: 8 dead in truck rampage
WASHINGTON: An Uzbek man, apparently inspired by the Islamic State, ploughed a pickup truck through a bike path in Manhattan, killing eight people and injuring at least a dozen in the deadliest terror attack in New York City since 9/11.
Sayfullo Saipov, 29, was heard shouting “Allah-u-Akbar” during the rampage on Tuesday afternoon, witnesses said. He was shot in the abdomen by a police officer when he emerged from the truck after it collided with a school bus at 3.05 pm (1905 GMT), blocks away from the 9/11 Memorial. He was walking in the middle of the street brandishing two weapons, which turned out to be paintball and pellet guns. Saipov was in police custody and being treated at a hospital.
“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 told a news conference.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said, based on a preliminary investigations, this was a lone wolf attack carried out by the suspect acting alone. This was “one individual who meant to cause pain and harm and probably death and the resulting terror. That was the purpose.”
President Donald Trump tweeted about what was the first terror attack on the American mainland in his term, and in his hometown: “We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!” Trump also said he had directed his administration to “step up” extreme vetting.
Authorities did not disclose the attacker’s identity but news reports said Saipov came to the US in 2010 and had a green card. He had a Florida driver’s licence and had apparently been staying in New Jersey, from where he drove to neighbouring New York.
Saipov reportedly pledged loyalty to the IS in handwritten notes in Arabic found near the truck, the US media cited law enforcement officials as saying. It was not clear where he was radicalised, and investigators did not discover evidence showing direct ties between Saipov and the IS.
This was also the first instance of a terror attack in New York City involving fatalities after the 9/11 attacks that killed 2,606 people, including 34 from India. There were at least two attempts since then – the Times Square car bomb in 2010 and the Chelsea bombings in 2016 that left 29 people injured.
It was also the first instance of a vehicle being used as a terror weapon in the US, as in Berlin and Nice in 2016 and in Barcelona last August.
A white supremacist had driven through protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, recently killing a woman but authorities had not described it as an act of terrorism.
Saipov had used a rental pickup truck from Home Depot, a countrywide retail chain for home furnishings. He drove the truck down the bike path used by cyclists, joggers and walkers for about a mile, before it crashed into the school bus, injuring two adults and two children inside, close to a community college and a high school.
Videos made by passersby show Saipov running around – “randomly,” as one witness described it – after abandoning the vehicle, with police officers in pursuit.