At least eight people have been killed and 11 injured after a man drove a rental truck down a New York bike path in what is suspected to be the city’s deadliest terror attack since 9/11.
Police reported a driver went down the wrong way of a cycle path in lower Manhattan, then rammed into a school bus, injuring two adults and two children.
The driver, a 29-year-old man, then got out the vehicle and was said by NYPD commissioner James P. O’Neill to have made a statement “consistent” with terror attacks.
A law enforcement official told the Associated Press the man shouted “Allahu akbar”.
He brandished what police called imitation firearms which turned out to be a paintball and pellet gun, before police officers shot him in the stomach.
The man has been taken into custody. Law enforcement officials later identified 29-year-old as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. He is in hospital and is expected to live.
He is believed to have immigrated to the US from Uzbekistan in 2010.
Authorities reportedly found a handwritten note claiming allegiance to ISIS near the truck.
Footage showed him trying to flee the scene.
He can be seen weaving through moving cars, waving his weapons.
In a subsequent clip, the suspect is on the ground while officers surround him. He was taken to hospital with an abdominal wound and is expected to live.
Authorities reportedly found a handwritten note claiming allegiance to ISIS near the truck.
At a press conference hours after the incident, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio described the incident as a “cowardly act of terror”.
De Blasio said the attack was “aimed at innocent civilians going about their daily lives” and that “eight innocent people have lost their lives and over a dozen more are injured”.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the suspected attack was a “lone wolf” attack, and there was no evidence it was part of a wider plot.
Police responded to reports of gunfire near Stuyvesant High School in the west of the city at around 3pm local time on Tuesday.
Authorities said the city’s annual Halloween parade would still go on as planned with heightened security.
Five of those killed were friends from Argentina who were in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation, the country’s government confirmed.
They were Hernán Mendoza, Diego Angelini, Alejandro Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi.
A Facebook photo of their group shows them wearing matching t-shirts.
“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.
A Belgian woman is also among the dead.
President Donald Trump tweeted the incident “looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person”.
And Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted: “Appalled by this cowardly attack, my thoughts are with all affected. Together we will defeat the evil of terrorism. UK stands with #NYC.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn added: “Terrible reports of lives lost in NYC terror attack. My thoughts and solidarity are with those affected, their families & emergency services.”
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.
Last year, a man planted two bombs in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood, 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.
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 got! He’s got a gun!’” said Williams.
Williams said he saw a man being arrested and another man, who “looked like 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 the 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.”