Witnesses describe ‘war zone’ left in wake of New Orleans attack

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - The French Quarter, near Bourbon Street is blocked off late morning with a heavy police and FBI presence. — AFP

NEW ORLEANS, Jan 2 — Witnesses described terrifying scenes of “insanity” that they likened to being in a “war zone” after yesterday’s early morning vehicle-ramming attack in the US city of New Orleans that killed at least 10 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 toward 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.”

Cothran criticized the lack of barricades to stop vehicles from being able to access the busy area.

US media reported that city authorities had removed the steel barricades that would normally be placed to block traffic around the area as they were being renovated, replacing them with alternative measures.

Fans from both Notre Dame and Georgia in town for the now-delayed Sugar Bowl watch the investigation in the French Quarter from Canal Street.— AFP

Haunted by screams

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.”

Dave Jones, visiting with his two children and wife from Florida, said he had walked back in the door shortly after 3:00 am — moments before the truck barreled into the crowd.

“I mean, it was a simple decision of ‘did I get the hot dog at the street vendor or did I not?’ And I did not, and so I walked in here. Otherwise, I’m standing right there” at the scene, he told AFP.

Kimberly Stricklin and her husband Michael were visiting from Mobile, Alabama, and told The New York Times that they saw the truck accelerating towards Bourbon Street.

“We heard him punch the gas and then the impact and then the screams,” she said.

“It just took a moment to register, it was just so frightening — it was like something out of a horror movie.”

Stricklin said she was haunted by the screams of one young victim.

“I can’t get over that girl’s screams,” she said. — AFP