Witnesses describe attack site resembled as 'war zone'

Witnesses described terrifying scenes of "insanity" that they likened to being in a "war zone" after Wednesday's early morning vehicle-ramming attack in the US city of New Orleans that killed at least 15 people.

Zion Parsons, 18, told broadcaster CNN he had gone to the city's historic French Quarter to celebrate New Year's Eve, and was now desperately trying to reach a friend who was seriously wounded in the attack.

"It was just like a movie. That's the only way I can explain it," he said, of the moment a Ford F-150 pickup truck zoomed towards him through the pedestrian-only area. He said the truck threw bodies in the air in its wake.

"There were bodies and blood and all the trash," he said, describing scenes of victims crying on the ground in the fetal position after the truck had passed. "The best way I can describe it is truly a war zone."

Jimmy Cothran, another witness, told broadcaster ABC he and his friends fled into a building when they heard some sort of commotion.

"When we got on the balcony, what we saw was insanity," he said. "I mean, something out of a movie. I mean, the graphic nature of it. It was unbelievable."

He said he counted six people "clearly graphically deceased", with other victims "yelling with no one around".

Several tourists recounted the seemingly innocuous decisions they had made in the moments before the incident that could have meant life or death.

Tessa Duvall, who was visiting from Houston, Texas, told AFP that over the night "everybody was happy and the streets were beautiful" and she had mulled coming to Bourbon Street to continue the celebrations.

But "we just decided to stay low-key and stay at our hotel," she said - a decision that "probably saved our lives".