Eight people have been killed in yesterday’s terror attack in New York – the deadliest such incident in the city since 9/11. The alleged attacker has been named as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbekistan national who came to the United States in 2010 and worked as an Uber driver. The New York Times is reporting that notes written in Arabic were discovered in the vehicle used in the attack pledging allegiance to Isis.
It is believed the attacker drove a truck along a cycle path close to the Hudson River in Manhattan yesterday afternoon at around 3pm local time, crashing into a number of people. A group of five tourists from Argentina and a Belgian national were all killed in the attack, while two others who were taken to hospital were later confirmed to have lost their lives. 11 others were injured in the rampage which ended when the driver crashed into a school bus close to the site of the World Trade Center memorial. The suspect then emerged from the vehicle, yelling ‘Allahu akbar’ while waving two weapons – a paintball gun and a pellet gun – in the air. The man was shot in the stomach by a police officer and remains in hospital. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said: ‘Based on information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians.’
Donald Trump reacted to the attack by saying it was the work of a ‘sick and deranged person’. The President also said that ‘we must not allow Isis to return’ and said that he had told the department of Homeland Security to ‘step up our already Extreme Vetting Program’.
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