Ten people were killed and 30 others were injured after a car plowed into a crowd in New Orleans, emergency officials said.
Nola Ready, the emergency department, said the incident happened at around 03:15 local time (08:15 GMT) on Bourbon Street. Eyewitness reports, which the police have not confirmed, say the driver then started firing a weapon.
A CBS reporter saw several people injured on the ground at the intersection of Bourbon and Canal streets.
A man who was in the bar at the time of the incident told the BBC that after the police let him go, he “passed the injured bodies all over the street”.
The BBC confirmed a video from the scene showed a man lying on the ground as others gathered, before gunfire rang out, causing the crowd to disperse.
Another graphic video shows two injured people lying in the street.
Eyewitnesses told CBS that the car hit the crowd, and the driver started firing a weapon, which led to the police returning fire. The police have not yet confirmed this report.
Whit Davis, from Shreveport, Louisiana, told the BBC that he had been in and around Bourbon Street since early evening. He was inside the bar when the incident happened, and he said he didn't hear any gunshots or accidents because the music was so loud.
“Then people started running and got under the tables as if it was a drill. The police then held us in the bar for a while and when we were allowed to leave we passed injured bodies all over the street,” he said.
“Everyone was completely shocked,” he added. “I visit New Orleans often and I've never seen anything close to this bad.”
Jim and Nicole Mowrer, who were visiting New Orleans from Iowa, told CBS they were in the French Quarter when they heard the crash coming from down the street.
They said they saw a white truck speeding away at a “high speed”, then heard gunshots followed by a crash.
“We stayed in a bar until the gunfire stopped, we went out into the street, we came across many people who had been beaten, [we] we want to see what we can do to help,” said Nicole.
They tried to help the people they found injured, but they realized that the victims had died. They said that the truck hit people in an area not far from where they were walking.
The couple said the victims they saw were injured as a result of the truck collision, and they did not see any gunshot wounds. When they left the area, the emergency services arrived.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says in X's post that he is “praying for all the victims and first responders on the scene”.
“A horrific act of violence occurred on Bourbon Street this morning,” Landry wrote.
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