Live updates: 15 dead in New Orleans attack; FBI believes driver wasn't 'solely responsible'

In his remarks to the country, Biden also said authorities were investigating whether there was a connection between the New Orleans attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

At the time of Biden's address tonight, there was "nothing to report" on any connection, he said.

The suspect in the New Orleans attack posted videos to social media “indicating he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill,” Biden said in his address to the nation tonight, citing information from the FBI.  

"The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle," Biden added.

Biden said that no one should jump to conclusions about the investigation and that he would keep the country “fully, contemporaneously informed.”

A New Orleans-area man acting as a designated driver this morning had gone into a club with his friend to avoid a crowd when five women came running in, terrified, and ducked under tables.

Jimmy Cothran and his friend Alex Birth-Mitchell went to a balcony to get protection from whatever was happening and to find out more.

“And when we got out there, the scene’s unreal,” Cothran said. They said they were near where the attack began.

“And everyone had disappeared. It was dead silence. You could hear a pin drop,” he said.

Cothran and Birth-Mitchell saw no barriers that would have impeded the driver, they said. There were “hundreds” of people in the street before the attack, Cothran said.

One of the victims had tire tracks visible on his body where he’d been run over, he said. Birth-Mitchell described the scene as something that "felt like a war zone."

Biden spoke to the nation from Camp David, Maryland, about the New Orleans attack.

"I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you," Biden said. "We’re going to stand with you as you mourn and as you heal in the weeks to come."

He called the attack "despicable" and said he would keep the country "fully, contemporaneously informed" about the investigation.

"I know while this person committed a terrible assault on the city, the spirit of our New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated," Biden said. "It always will shine forth."

The governor of Texas and the mayor of Houston expressed their condolences after today’s truck attack in New Orleans and said they are in contact with officials in Louisiana.

“I spoke with Louisiana Governor Landry and offered the full assistance of the State of Texas,” Gov. Greg Abbott wrote on X. “Texas stands with our neighbor.”

The FBI said today it was conducting searches at an address in Houston that was related to the attack.

Those killed in the New Orleans attack have injuries consistent with being struck with a vehicle, not with being shot, the coroner told NBC affiliate WDSU of New Orleans.

“We have not done the autopsies, but it appears that the wounds were related to the car accident — but we have not done the autopsies yet,” New Orleans Coroner Dwight McKenna said.

The FBI has said Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, crashed into a crowd and then opened fire on police, wounding two of them. Jabbar was killed.

McKenna told the station that the autopsies would begin tomorrow and that a cause of death won’t be confirmed until those are done.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those families," he said.

Fifteen people were killed in the attack in New Orleans, an FBI official said in an update.

Officials had said at least 10 were killed.

The FBI has ruled out as suspects people who authorities initially believed may have been planting devices, a senior law enforcement official said.

Officials previously said they was investigating after people were seen in video who could possibly have been planting improvised explosive devices.

Those people have been ruled out as suspects, the senior law enforcement official said.

An ex-wife of New Orleans attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar filed for a restraining order against him shortly after a divorce petition, according to public records obtained by NBC News.

Shaneen Chantil Jabbar was granted a temporary restraining order against Jabbar on July 22, 2020, five days after a petition for divorce was filed involving the couple, according to the order.

The temporary restraining order said both parties could not “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly [cause] bodily injury to the other party or to a child of either party” or “[threaten] the other party or a child of either party with imminent bodily injury.”

The divorce case was dismissed in August 2020, but another petition was filed in 2021. In August 2022, a judge filed an order saying the couple were divorced on the “ground of insupportability," according to the documents.

Jabbar was ordered to pay his ex-wife monthly child support, the order said.

The Sugar Bowl college football game will be postponed until 3 p.m. CT tomorrow (4 p.m. ET) after what the game’s CEO described as today’s vehicle ramming attack in New Orleans, officials announced.

The game, between Georgia and Notre Dame, was supposed to be held at 7:45 tonight CT at the Superdome in New Orleans.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families as we work through this,” CEO Jeff Hundley said in a statement.

Hundley announced earlier that the football game would be postponed 24 hours.

“Work is fast about to set up a safe and efficient and fun environment for tomorrow night,” Hundley said at a news conference earlier today.

Security barriers that were intended to protect pedestrians from vehicles but at times malfunctioned were removed for replacement before an attacker drove a pickup truck into a crowd along Bourbon Street this morning.

City officials said other barriers, vehicles and law enforcement officers deployed strategically along Bourbon Street failed to prevent the attacker from driving onto the sidewalk.

New Orleans was replacing the older barriers, known as bollards, ahead of the city’s hosting this year’s Super Bowl in February, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference this afternoon. 

“Bollards were not up because they are near completion, with the expectation of being completed before the Super Bowl,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Biden held a call with members of his homeland security team to discuss updates on the New Orleans attack, the White House said.

The call included top security and law enforcement officials such as Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to the White House.

A mother and her two children who were visiting New Orleans were at a restaurant in the French Quarter hours before the attack.

Sheila Hawkins, visiting from Maryland, is in New Orleans with her son, Riley Johnson, and daughter, Talya Johnson. They had dinner at Deanie’s Seafood on Iberville and Dauphine on New Year’s Eve. They remembered seeing an orange and white barrier on the street that would be moved aside to let traffic through. 

They weren’t outside when the attack happened, but Hawkins realized something was wrong when she woke up to missed calls and texts asking whether she was OK.

The family plans to leave New Orleans tomorrow and won’t be staying out late tonight.

“6 p.m. going back inside,” Tayla Johnson said.

Riley said it’s his first time visiting New Orleans.

“Coming here and this happens. It’s jarring,” he said.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said in a statement that she has requested a formal briefing from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for all senators.

"The American people deserve transparency and accountability as the pursuit of justice proceeds," Britt said. She called the attack "an act of unbridled evil."

Britt is the top Republican on the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the chair of the Intelligence Committee, asked people in a statement to “join me in praying for the victims and their families and in thankfulness for the bravery of local law enforcement that saved lives by putting themselves in danger.”

“During this investigation, we will learn what mistakes were made that in the future can help us prevent terrorists from harming our loved ones,” he added.

The FBI's Houston field office and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said they are “conducting law enforcement activity” in Houston related to the New Orleans attack.

The agencies said in a statement they have secured a perimeter in north Houston and are asking people to avoid the area. Law enforcement personnel are expected to be in the area for several hours.

A father of two from Louisiana was identified as one of the people killed in the terrorism attack in New Orleans, a relative told NBC News.

Reggie Hunter, 37, of Baton Rouge, died after he was hit by the suspect’s pickup, which plowed through hordes of revelers celebrating the new year on Bourbon Street before dawn, said his cousin Shirell Jackson, 47, of Hammond, Louisiana.

Jackson said she rushed to University Medical Center, where her cousin was pronounced dead.

She described her cousin as an “awesome person" and "a little-bitty guy” with a “big heart.” She also said Hunter, a manager at a warehouse, was extremely funny and loved his children, boys ages 11 and 1.

“He just didn’t deserve this,” Jackson said.

Hunter was celebrating the new year with another cousin, who survived the attack. Hunter’s injuries included a ruptured spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding, Jackson said.

“I wish I could be talking to you and saying both of them was alive,” she said. “I wish the mom who I’ve seen at the hospital wasn’t crying and her daughter wasn’t dead. I don’t even know the lady.

"She was crying because her daughter was dead," Jackson said. "Another Black couple, their son was dead.”

The FBI said that the suspect had an ISIS flag in the pickup and that it is investigating any links between him and terrorist organizations.

“Whether it was a terrorist or Joe Blow … from whatever, Louisiana, what they done was horrible. They devastated so many lives," Jackson said.

New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said the suspect drove onto the sidewalk and around a "hard target" — which included officers, barriers and a car — to carry out the attack.

“They still got around," Kirkpatrick said, addressing issues with bollards in the French Quarter. "The wedges that you see out there, as well, we knew that that had malfunction problems."

"We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it," she said.

Police Capt. LeJon Roberts said bollards were strategically placed on the roadway. Mayor LaToya Cantrell said they were being replaced "because they did not operate the way they were intended to."

An FBI special agent said no additional IEDs have been found after two devices were discovered in the early morning.

“What we’ve done in conjunction with our local and state partners, we’ve gone through and done a sweep to identify anything we thought was suspicious, and we have not,” Alethea Duncan, the FBI assistant special agent in charge in New Orleans, said at a news conference.

Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said that officers worked in grids to sweep every street in the French Quarter and that no further suspicious materials have been identified.

Tiger Bech, a graduate of St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette, Louisiana, was one of the at least 10 people killed today when a driver plowed a pickup into groups of new year's revelers on Bourbon Street, the school said in a statement.

"The St. Thomas More Catholic High School community mourns the loss of one of our own, Tiger Bech, who passed away early this morning as a result of the New York attack in New Orleans," it said.

The school described Bech as a 2015 graduate who was a "standout" in football, lacrosse and track and field, the school said.

A rosary prayer service will be held at the school chapel this afternoon for Bech and his family, the statement said.

The suspect was an Army veteran, an FBI official said, adding that he may have been honorably discharged.

"We're working through this process, figuring out all this information," the official said.

Anne Kirkpatrick, the New Orleans police superintendent, praised the officers who returned gunfire and killed the attacker in the French Quarter this morning.

“Last night, three of our officers engaged this terrorist who shot at them,” Kirkpatrick said during a news conference. “Three of the officers returned fire. Those officers did not run in fear. I liked what the mayor said this morning, New Orleans police and law enforcement is built — we are built — for dealing with evil, with things that would cause others to be in fear."

“But instead our officers, last night NOPD in particular, stood strong. They did not run. They did kill the terrorist.”

Kirkpatrick added that two of the officers were injured by the gunfire, but that they will be OK.

The FBI said it does not believe Shamsud Din Jabbar was "solely responsible" for the Bourbon Street attack and asked for the public's assistance.

“We’re aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates," said Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office.

"That’s why we need the public’s help. We’re asking if anybody has any interactions with Shamsud Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us," she said at an afternoon news conference. "The FBI is asking the public’s help. We’re asking anyone who has information, video or pictures to provide it to the FBI.”

Duncan said an ISIS flag was found on the trailer hitch of the vehicle the suspect was driving. The FBI is working to determine Jabbar's "potential associations and affiliations with terroristic organizations," she said.

The Sugar Bowl has been postponed 24 hours, Jeff Hundley, the CEO of the college football bowl game, announced at a press conference Wednesday.

The game has been played annually in New Orleans since 1935. This year’s matchup is a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game between Notre Dame and Georgia. The game is now scheduled to take place on Thursday.

The Ford pickup truck that authorities say the Bourbon Street attacker used appears to have been an F-150 Lightning truck, according to photos from the aftermath of the incident.

While the year that the vehicle was manufactured was not immediately known, the Ford F-150 Lightning is an electric truck renowned for its speed: the F-150 Lightning boasts the ability to go from zero to 60 mph in just four seconds, according to Car and Driver magazine.

Car-sharing marketplace Turo said that the vehicle in the attack was rented from its company.

Turo, a peer-to-peer car rental service, said in a statement that the company was "heartbroken" to learn that "one of our host’s vehicles was involved in this awful incident."

A spokesperson for the company said that it was cooperating with the FBI in its investigation of the attack and that the platform is "not currently aware" of anything in the guest's background that would have identified him as a "trust and safety threat" at the time of reservation for the rental car.

Shamsud Din Jabbar, the suspect identified as the truck driver who plowed into groups of people on New Orleans' Bourbon Street, had an ISIS flag in the vehicle, the FBI said.

Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, allegedly had the flag in the pickup, and investigators are working to determine his potential associations and affiliations with terrorist groups, the FBI said.

Two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter also said investigators are looking into at least two improvised explosive devices, also known as IEDs, that may have been planted near the area of the attack. The investigation is trying to determine whether the devices were actual explosives and if they were operable, the officials said.

The FBI said weapons and a potential IED were located in the subject’s vehicle. Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter, according to the FBI.

Special Agent Bomb Technicians are working with law enforcement partners to determine if any of these devices are viable and they will work to render those devices safe, the FBI said.

New Orleans was in the process of removing and replacing security bollards on Bourbon Street in the area where the truck attacker struck this morning. 

The city said on its website that the bollards on Bourbon Street from Canal Street to St. Ann Street would be replaced with “new removable stainless-steel bollards” that could be securely locked behind each crosswalk. 

“The removable bollards will help close the street to cars during pedestrian-only times but will be stored away when the street is open to all traffic,” the city said on its website. 

The first phase of the construction to remove and replace the bollard system began in November 2024 and was expected to proceed through February 2025, the city said. The goal is to have the barriers replaced before the Super Bowl.

It was not immediately clear if the bollards had already been fully removed from the area where the attack occurred early this morning, and if so, what type of security measures were in place.

One witness, Jimmy Cothran, told NBC News that the metal barricades that usually block off Bourbon Street were not deployed on New Year's Eve. "They weren't up," he said, noting that he had been surprised to see that.

Radi Nabulsi, publisher of the website UGASports.com, told NBC News that he saw a large law enforcement presence in the Bourbon Street area as well as multiple white and orange plastic barricades and fencing when he left around 2:30 a.m. local time. He said he did not remember seeing bollards he had seen in the past.

“The problem is Bourbon Street is long and every block there’s a cross street and there’s not a barricade on each one of those, because cars are going north to south, crossing Bourbon,” he said.

But Nabulsi said he “felt completely safe” at the time.

“One person, with all the security they put in place, killed 10 people and injured many more and that is just disheartening,” he said. 

A third witness told WDSU-TV that the pickup truck "mowed over the barricade."

A University of Georgia student was critically injured in the attack on pedestrians in New Orleans this morning that killed at least 10 revelers, according to the university's president.

University President Jere W. Morehead said in a statement posted on X: “At this point, we have learned that a University of Georgia student was critically injured in the attack and is receiving medical treatment. I have spoken to the student’s family and shared my concern, support and well wishes on behalf of the entire UGA community.”

The identity of the student was not released.

The No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs are scheduled to meet the No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m. ET in New Orleans' Superdome.

Investigators work the scene after a person drove a vehicle into a crowd earlier on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

The suspect accused of killing at least 10 people and injuring 30 Wednesday morning in New Orleans has been preliminary identified as Shamsud Din Jabbar, according to three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.

Officials are still working on information about his background and on potential travel history, sources said.

Din Jabbar, 42, is accused of intentionally plowing a pickup truck into New Year's revelers at about 3:15 a.m. on Bourbon Street, authorities said. The suspect is dead, the FBI said.

Law enforcement are also investigating multiple suspected improvised explosive devices linked to the attack.

Read the full story here.

Two eyewitnesses described to NBC News the horror of the attack that killed at least 10 people in a crowd celebrating New Year's Eve.

A woman who said she was "coming through the intersection" said everything happened "so quickly."

"The guy in the pickup truck just punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit a petty cab passenger," she said as her voice began to catch with emotion. "And there were just bodies and the screams. I mean, you can't un-think about, you know, un-hear that. It was chaos."

The witness described the scene as "very, very scary."

She added that when she initially saw the car, she thought nothing of it because it was so innocuous.

"It was the most bizarre thing," she said. "I don't even know how he managed to maneuver that with the amount of traffic and people that were still out."

The FBI investigates the area on Orleans and Bourbon streets, by St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter, where a suspicious package was detonated after a person drove a truck into a crowd earlier on Bourbon Street.

President-elect Donald Trump, in his first statement on the ramming attack, said in a post on TruthSocial that "criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country" and that the crime rate in the country is at a level "nobody has ever seen before."

No information about the attacker's identity has been made publicly available and data released by the FBI last year showed that violent crime was down about 3% nationally from 2022 to 2023.

The president-elect also said his administration would "fully support" the city of New Orleans in its investigation of the attack. "Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department," Trump said.

President Joe Biden lauded New Orleans law enforcement for its "brave and swift" action to prevent "even greater death and injury."

In a written statement, he also vowed full support to investigate what he called an "horrific incident," which has left at least 10 people dead and dozens injured.

"I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind," the president wrote.

Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, said his department is working with local law enforcement to investigate the ramming attack as an act of terrorism.

Federal investigators and local law enforcement in New Orleans are trying to determine if the suspect in the ramming vehicle used a long-gun rifle and was firing it into the crowd while running people over on Bourbon Street, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News.

The vehicle used in the incident is also an intense focus for investigators, who are using the license plate, a Texas plate, to try to glean more information on the suspect and what unfolded.

A white stick or pipe with a black cloth wrapped around it was also found on the rear of the vehicle affixed to the hitch, the senior law enforcement officials said. It's possible the cloth could be a flag or contain markings, but investigators are still looking into the matter.

Videos circulating online showed the horror and chaos of the immediate aftermath of this morning's truck attack.

The Tournament of Roses and the city of Pasadena, California, said this morning that they “extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans following this morning’s tragic events.”

Millions of people around the world are expected to watch the 136th Rose Parade today. More than 800,000 people from across the country line up to see the spectacle every year, and millions more watch from home. 

“We stand in solidarity with the entire state during this difficult time,” the statement said. 

The statement said the city undergoes months of preparations in coordination with law enforcement and has a “hard shut down of vehicles along the entire Parade route in addition to very robust vehicle barriers at intersections,” as well as more than 1,000 law enforcement personnel working the parade and game.

Photos circulating online appear to show the white pickup truck used by the attacker in New Orleans this morning. NBC News could not immediately verify the origins of those photos.

One photo appears to show a white pickup truck that has crashed into heavy machinery, with the hood of the truck raised, in the middle of a street and debris surrounding the scene. 

President Joe Biden has called New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell to offer "full federal support," the White House says. It added that the president will continue to be briefed on the incident throughout the day.

Questions have begun to emerge around how the driver in today's deadly incident was able to get around barriers officials said had been set up in order to keep revelers celebrating New Year's Eve safe.

Anne Kirkpatrick, the NOPD's superintendent, said the driver “went around our barricades in order to conduct" what she described as an intentional act.

Ahead of the celebrations, NOPD said in a news release it would be staffed at "100 percent" for the celebrations, as well as for tonight's Sugar Bowl football event, with an additional 300 officers assisting from partner law enforcement agencies.

The news release did not mention the deployment of barriers ahead of the festivities, but barricades and bollards are often used to block vehicles from entering Bourbon Street, a hotspot during major celebrations in New Orleans.

One eyewitness told NBC News that he had noticed an apparent absence of steel barricades in the area around Bourbon Street and had been surprised earlier in the evening that they weren't in place.

"There were no barricades," Jimmy Cothran said in a phone interview today. "Me and my friend were surprised because they hadn't put them up," he said, as he described a harrowing scene following the deadly incident. NBC News was not able to immediately confirm what barricades, if any, had been put in place in the area.

The city in 2017 had installed steel mechanical barriers in the French Quarter following a major ramming attack in Nice, France, the year before, according to NOLA.com.

New Orleans had also launched a project to replace older bollards with removable stainless steel ones along a number of blocks, with construction having begun in November and expected to carry on into February 2025. In an update posted on Instagram on Dec. 10, the city said it was replacing old bollards and making sidewalk repairs along Bourbon Street between Canal and St. Ann.

A number of videos have begun to emerge on social media showing the aftermath of the deadly car ramming.

Two of the videos geolocated by NBC News are particularly graphic and distressing.

One shows a body on the ground as loud bangs — possibly gunshots — are heard. Another, apparently filmed from a balcony, shows four motionless bodies, one of them bloodied, as bystanders try to help, a siren blares, and officials dressed in green uniforms and armed with long rifles rush past.

The videos are being widely circulated and it was not immediately clear who filmed or uploaded the footage.

The FBI said in a statement Wednesday morning that the person who drove the truck into a crowd in New Orleans and "engaged with local law enforcement" is confirmed dead.

"This morning, an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others," the FBI said. "The subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism."

The ramming attack took place in New Orleans' French Quarter, near the intersection of Bourbon Street and Canal Street.

Liz Murrill, Louisiana's attorney general, said in a post on X that she was praying for the victims of what she called "the brutal intentional slaughter of innocent people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans."

A man who witnessed the carnage on Bourbon Street after a driver plowed into pedestrians has described a harrowing scene, with bodies left "horribly disfigured" lying on the street.

"It was unbelievable," Jimmy Cothran told NBC News in a phone interview this morning as he described scenes that could only be compared to "a movie."

Cothran said he was walking from Bourbon Street toward Canal Street when he noticed a "lot of commotion" and ducked off into a nightclub. Suddenly, he said, a group of women ran inside, pushing back security and hiding under tables.

"We live here and unfortunately, our first thoughts were somebody's shooting or chasing them," he said. Cothran said he ran upstairs, knowing the club had a balcony, only to witness a horrific scene, with the bodies of victims laying on the ground.

"Two looked to be at least alive. I wouldn't say survivable but at least alive," he said.

Others appeared to be "graphically deceased," with one having tire tracks visible on his body. "It just kept going," he said. "Like, every eye shot, body, body, body, body."

The FBI is investigating today's car ramming as a "potential terrorism" incident, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News.

Earlier, Mayor Cantrell called the incident a "terrorist" attack, but the special agent in charge for FBI New Orleans said it was initially not being considered a "terrorist event."

The FBI is now leading the investigation into the incident.

This morning's attack unfolded just hours before the Sugar Bowl, a major annual college football game played in New Orleans, was expected to get underway tonight — and it is still unclear how the incident will impact the event.

“The Sugar Bowl Committee is devastated by the terrible events from early this morning,” Jeff Hundley, Allstate Sugar Bowl chief executive officer said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.”

“We are in ongoing discussions with authorities on the local, state, and federal levels and will communicate further details as they become available,” he said.

The No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs were scheduled to meet the No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m. ET, with many people expected to have made their way to New Orleans for the major sporting event.

Residents and visitors to New Orleans have been warned to stay away from Bourbon Street and surrounding areas as authorities continue to investigate today's incident.

An emergency alert has gone out warning residents and visitors to New Orleans to stay away from Bourbon Street from Canal St. to Dumaine St. and from Royal St. to Dauphine St..

"Because this is an active scene, we are urging residents to stay off of Bourbon from Canal to Dumaine and from Royal to Dauphine," a NOLA Ready alert managed by the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness said.

Anne Kirkpatrick, New Orleans Police Department superintendent, issued a similar warning during this morning’s news conference.

"We know we have 10 people that this man killed," she said. "That is why we do not want anyone on Bourbon Street today as she urged everyone to stay from areas "where you see yellow tape."

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the deadly incident on Bourbon Street, according to the White House.

The White House has been in touch with New Orleans Mayor Cantrell to offer support and Biden is expected to continue to be briefed throughout the day.

The majority of the victims of the car ramming appear to have been "locals" rather tourists, Kirkpatrick, New Orleans Police Department superintendent said during this morning's news conference.

She said at in addition to the 10 people killed, at least 35 people were injured in the incident, though she said it was possible "unconfirmed additional people" had been taken to other hospitals. She said authorities would be providing updates as the day progresses.

A federal law enforcement official tells NBC News that the suspect in the deaths of at least 10 people in New Orleans this morning is believed to be dead.

The police and FBI did not make that clear during the news conference, although they said he shot at police officers.

The identity of the suspect and any potential motive in the incident remains unclear and the FBI continues to investigate.

The deadly incident on Bourbon Street is not considered a "terrorist event" at this point, Alethea Duncan, the special agent in charge for FBI New Orleans said at this morning's news conference.

At least one improvised explosive device had been found in the area, Duncan said, adding an investigation was still underway into the matter.

The FBI is now leading the investigation into the incident.

Duncan said improvised explosive devices had been found in the area, but she said an investigation was still underway into the matter.

Her comments came after New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell initially suggested during the news conference that the incident was a "terrorist" event. As of now, any potential motive in the incident remains unclear.

A federal law enforcement official told NBC News that the suspect is believed to be dead.

The official also said the FBI is investigating this as a potential terrorist attack, but added that the special agent in charge was being careful in her use of language.

The driver of the vehicle that rammed into pedestrians on Bourbon Street was "hellbent" on "creating the carnage and the damage that he did," New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference just now, describing the incident as an intentional act.

Addressing reporters, Kirkpatrick said more than 300 police officers had been out on the street to monitor the New Years' festivities.

The driver, she said, "went around our barricades in order to conduct this."

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called the incident today on Bourbon Street a terrorist attack during a briefing with reporters.

The City of New Orleans said today that people were hurt in a “mass casualty incident" on Canal and Bourbon Street.

"A vehicle ... drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street at approximately 3:15 a.m.," the city said in a statement on its website.

At least 10 people are dead and 30 injured in what police are calling a “mass casualty” event in New Orleans after a vehicle drove into a crowd during New Year’s celebrations early Wednesday, city officials said.

The City of New Orleans confirmed the figures in a statement on its website and said people were hurt in a “mass casualty incident involving a vehicle that drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street.”

Read more here.