(Reuters) – A brand new chapter in mass assaults started in Good, France, in 2016, when a person drove a heavy truck into crowds of Bastille Day celebrants. Since then car assaults have grow to be more and more widespread, although just some have been declared acts of terrorism. The New Yr’s Day assault in New Orleans, as revelers ushered in 2025, was the newest assault.
A driver crashed his pickup truck right into a crowd celebrating New Yr’s Day in New Orleans’ French Quarter and opened fireplace, killing 10 folks and injuring greater than 35, in an early morning assault the FBI stated was a possible act of terrorism.
Car assaults have grow to be more and more widespread world wide. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Safety Company calls car assaults “a major risk in the US” and gives a “Car Incident Prevention and Mitigation Safety Information.”
Beneath is an inventory in reverse chronological order of some high-profile incidents during which a car was used to ram into crowds, harming and killing bystanders.
MAGDEBURG, Germany
Final month in Germany, a 50-year-old man was charged with a number of counts of homicide and tried homicide after police stated he plowed a automotive by crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing 5 folks and injuring scores.
The suspect, who was in custody, is a psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a historical past of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for nearly twenty years.
ZHUHAI, China
A driver in November rammed his automotive right into a crowd at a sports activities middle within the southern Chinese language metropolis of Zhuhai, killing 35 folks and severely injuring 43 in one of many deadliest assaults in modern Chinese language historical past.
Police stated 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 different elements of his physique. Fan had been upset concerning the break up of property in his divorce settlement, police stated.
WAUKESHA, Wisconsin
A Wisconsin man was convicted in 2022 of killing six folks and injuring dozens when he drove his SUV right into a Christmas parade close to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in November 2021. Darrell Brooks was accused of intentionally driving his sport utility car by police barricades and plowing into crowds of individuals collaborating within 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 4 members of a Muslim household along with his pick-up truck in June 2021 in London, Ontario, a Canadian metropolis about 120 miles (190 km) from Toronto. In 2023 Nathaniel Veltman was convicted of first-degree homicide. The decide within the case known as it an act of terrorism.
TORONTO
In 2018, a person plowed a rented van into dozens of individuals in downtown Toronto, killing 11 folks and injuring 15.
Alek Minassian was discovered responsible in 2021 of murdering 10 folks and making an attempt to homicide 16. One of many 16 later died in reference to accidents suffered within the assault, and a decide stated she thought-about the girl the eleventh homicide sufferer.
NEW YORK
In October 2017, a 34-year-old Uzbek nationwide plowed a rented truck onto a Manhattan bike path, killing eight folks and injuring 11, together with a Belgian girl who misplaced her legs. Sayfullo Saipov, who had moved to the US in 2010, was convicted in 2023 of homicide with a objective of becoming a member of Islamic State, which the US designates a terrorist group.
BARCELONA
In August 2017, a 22-year-old man rammed a automotive into crowds in Barcelona on Las Ramblas, a preferred vacationer spot, killing 13 folks. The person, Younes Abouyaaqoub, fled the scene on foot earlier than later stabbing a person to loss of life and taking his automotive to flee. Abouyaaqoub was shot lifeless by police just a few days later close to Barcelona.
NEW YORK
In Might 2017, A U.S. Navy veteran rammed his automotive into pedestrians in Manhattan’s crowded Instances Sq., killing a lady and injuring 22 folks. A jury in 2022 accepted the madness protection supplied by Richard Rojas.
LONDON
In March 2017, a automotive sped throughout Westminster Bridge, mowing down pedestrians simply exterior Parliament, killing 4 folks and injuring dozens. The motive force, 52-year-old Khalid Masood, a British-born convert to Islam, then fatally stabbed a police officer earlier than he was shot lifeless.
BERLIN
In December 2016, Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist hyperlinks, hijacked a truck, killed the driving force after which plowed it right into a crowded Berlin Christmas market, killing 11 extra folks and injuring dozens. 4 days later he was killed in a shoot-out with police in Italy.
NICE, France
In 2016, a gunman drove a heavy truck right into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day within the French coastal metropolis of Good, killing 86 folks and injuring scores extra in an assault claimed by Islamic State. The attacker was recognized as a Tunisian-born Frenchman.
