8 KILLED IN NYC TERROR ATTACK
Truck maniac mows down cyclists in bike lane before being shot by cops
EIGHT people were confirmed dead last night after a terrorist drove a truck on to a busy New York cycle path then rammed a school bus.
At least a dozen more victims were injured in the carnage just a few blocks north of the 9/11 memorial site in lower Manhattan.
New York Police Department said the 29-year-old suspect emerged from the hired truck after mowing down cyclists and pedestrians.
He brandished a paintball and pellet gun and was shot in the stomach by police officers before being arrested.
One onlooker said the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” – the Arabic phrase meaning “God is great” – during the terror attack.
NYPD officials said the truck mounted the kerb at West Houston Street just after 3pm local time and drove south for several blocks on the bike path on the West Side Highway, leaving scattered bodies and mangled bicycles in its wake.
The rented Home Depot truck is then understood to have collided with a school bus – injuring four people on board, including two children – and smashed into another vehicle.
Witnesses described watching the driver emerge screaming from the crumpled truck and run away from the scene, holding what looked like a gun, before seven to eight shots were fired.
A photographer said he saw bodies lying motionless on the path, a popular route for tourists hiring bikes to get around the city.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio described the incident as “a particularly cowardly act of terror” and said it was “aimed at innocent civilians going about their daily lives”.
He added: “Eight innocent people have lost their lives and
over a dozen more are injured.”
Emergency vehicles swarmed the streets near Stuyvesant High School and the public were urged to avoid the area.
Police closed a series of roads as victims were rushed to Bellevue Hospital.
Witness Greg Ahl said: “A vehicle drove straight down a bicycle path heading south in Manhattan – just mowing everything down.
“I noticed along the bike path a bunch of wrecked bicycles and as I drove it was just more and more completely and totally wrecked bicycles.”
A 14-year-old student from the nearby high school said pupils initially thought the unfolding incident was a prank. She said: “We thought it was a Halloween thing. He started running around the highway.
“There was another guy in a green shirt that was chasing him around.
“I heard four to six gunshots – everybody starts running.”
US president Donald Trump was briefed by White House chief of staff John Kelly last night. He tweeted: “In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person.
“Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE USA!”
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected.”
Counter-terror police searched the truck for explosives after the incident. It’s thought it had been recently rented in Jersey City.
NYPD said one person was in custody and they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
Commissioner James O’Neill said the suspect had made a statement which led police to declare the incident an act of terrorism.