By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-01-01 17:59:08 | Updated at 2025-01-04 10:32:46
2 days ago
A new chapter in mass attacks began in Nice, France, in 2016, when a man drove a heavy truck into crowds of Bastille Day celebrants. Since then vehicle attacks have become increasingly common, though only some have been declared acts of terrorism. The New Year's Day attack in New Orleans, as revelers ushered in 2025, was the latest attack.
A driver crashed his pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year's Day in New Orleans' French Quarter and opened fire, killing 10 people and injuring more than 35, in an early morning attack the FBI said was a potential act of terrorism.
Vehicle attacks have become increasingly common around the world. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency calls vehicle attacks "a significant threat in the United States" and provides a "Vehicle Incident Prevention and Mitigation Security Guide."
Below is a list in reverse chronological order of some high-profile incidents in which a vehicle was used to ram into crowds, harming and killing bystanders.
MAGDEBURG, Germany
Last month in Germany, a 50-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder after police said he plowed a car through crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five people and injuring scores.
The suspect, who was in custody, is a psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for almost two decades.
ZHUHAI, China
A driver in November rammed his car into a crowd at a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people and severely injuring 43 in one of the deadliest attacks in contemporary Chinese history.
Police said the 62-year-old driver, with the surname Fan, had been captured and was hospitalized for wounds believed to have been self-inflicted with a knife to the neck and other parts of his body. Fan had been upset about the split of assets in his divorce settlement, police said.
WAUKESHA, Wisconsin
A Wisconsin man was convicted in 2022 of killing six people and injuring dozens when he drove his SUV into a Christmas parade near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in November 2021. Darrell Brooks was accused of deliberately driving his sport utility vehicle through police barricades and plowing into crowds of people participating in the annual parade in Waukesha, about 15 miles (25 km) west of downtown Milwaukee.
LONDON, Ontario
A 22-year-old self-confessed Canadian white nationalist ran over and killed four members of a Muslim family with his pick-up truck in June 2021 in London, Ontario, a Canadian city about 120 miles (190 km) from Toronto. In 2023 Nathaniel Veltman was convicted of first-degree murder. The judge in the case called it an act of terrorism.
TORONTO
In 2018, a man plowed a rented van into dozens of people in downtown Toronto, killing 11 people and injuring 15.
Alek Minassian was found guilty in 2021 of murdering 10 people and attempting to murder 16. One of the 16 later died in connection with injuries suffered in the attack, and a judge said she considered the woman the 11th murder victim.
NEW YORK
In October 2017, a 34-year-old Uzbek national plowed a rented truck onto a Manhattan bike path, killing eight people and injuring 11, including a Belgian woman who lost her legs. Sayfullo Saipov, who had moved to the United States in 2010, was convicted in 2023 of murder with a goal of joining Islamic State, which the United States designates a terrorist organization.
BARCELONA
In August 2017, a 22-year-old man rammed a car into crowds in Barcelona on Las Ramblas, a popular tourist spot, killing 13 people. The man, Younes Abouyaaqoub, fled the scene on foot before later stabbing a man to death and taking his car to escape. Abouyaaqoub was shot dead by police a few days later near Barcelona.
NEW YORK
In May 2017, A U.S. Navy veteran rammed his car into pedestrians in Manhattan's crowded Times Square, killing a woman and injuring 22 people. A jury in 2022 accepted the insanity defense offered by Richard Rojas.
LONDON
In March 2017, a car sped across Westminster Bridge, mowing down pedestrians just outside Parliament, killing four people and injuring dozens. The driver, 52-year-old Khalid Masood, a British-born convert to Islam, then fatally stabbed a police officer before he was shot dead.
BERLIN
In December 2016, Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, hijacked a truck, killed the driver and then plowed it into a crowded Berlin Christmas market, killing 11 more people and injuring dozens. Four days later he was killed in a shoot-out with police in Italy.
NICE, France
In 2016, a gunman drove a heavy truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French coastal city of Nice, killing 86 people and injuring scores more in an attack claimed by Islamic State. The attacker was identified as a Tunisian-born Frenchman. REUTERS
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