New Orleans mayor says New Year's Day mass casualty incident was a 'terrorist attack'

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is calling the New Year’s Day mass casualty incident that killed 10 people and injured 30 a “terrorist attack.”

The FBI is investigating what occurred early Wednesday, when a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’ famed Canal and Bourbon Street in the first hours of New Year’s Day.

Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said officials were investigating the discovery of at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.

Earlier, the New Orleans Police Department said it was responding to a mass casualty incident Wednesday that included fatalities. NOLA Ready advised people to stay away from the area.

It said the injured had been taken to five local hospitals.

The incident came at 3:15 a.m. toward the end of New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans and hours before the kickoff of the Sugar Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held in the city's Superdome, with thousands expected to be in attendance.

Earlier this week, the police department said security would be beefed up ahead of New Year's Day celebrations. The department said it would be staffed at 100% capacity with 300 officers from partner agencies and a strong presence of marked and unmarked vehicles.