TERROR DRIVER 'HELLBENT ON CARNAGE' KILLS 10

'Pure evil' New Orleans crowd attacker had Islamic State flag on truck

- Christopher Bucktin

A TERRORIST killed at least 10 new year revellers by ploughing a truck into them.

The driver, whose vehicle bore an Islamic State flag and contained explosives, was named last night as US citizen Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42.

He shot and wounded two New Orleans police officers before being killed by return fire. Dozens of partygoers were injured as Jabbar, right, said to be "hellbent on creating carnage", careered along packed tourist hotspot Bourbon Street in a rented electric white Ford F150 at 3.15am. The FBI said last night that investigators believe he was not acting alone in the attack.

Surveillance footage caught three men and one woman planting one of several improvised explosive devices in the city's French Quarter which were later made safe.

Guns and pipe bombs were also found in Jabbar's pick-up, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin. The devices, inside cool boxes, were wired for remote detonation and a controller was also discovered in his vehicle.

An FBI spokesman said last night: "An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organisations." The horror erupted as thousands of locals and tourists celebrated the arrival of 2025, before the street party was turned into scenes that witnesses said resembled a battlefield.

Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said of the attack: "It involved a man driving a pick-up truck down Bourbon Street at a very fast pace, and it was very intentional behaviour.

"This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. He was hellbent on creating the carnage and damage." She said body armour-wearing Jabbar drove on to the pavement and around a police barrier before accelerating into the crowd, leaving the dead and injured strewn across the road.

President Joe Biden offered federal support for the investigation.