[Breaking news update, posted at 4:58 p.m. ET]
Multiple law enforcement sources say the New York incident is being investigated as terrorism. Separately, four law enforcement sources said witnesses reported the suspect was yelling Allahu Akbar.
One law enforcement source said the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is taking over the lead of the investigation.
[Breaking news update, posted at 4:45 p.m. ET]
Six people are dead after a truck hit several people in a bike path, an NYPD official said.
The suspect, in a Home Depot rental truck, hopped a curb at West Houston Street and drove south on the West Street bike path on west side of West Side Highway, the official said.
The suspect hit a school bus and wrecked his truck, the official said. Four people were removed from the bus and they had minor injuries, the official said.
[Previous story, posted at 4:36 p.m. ET]
The driver of a truck drove the wrong way down the West Side Highway bike path for several blocks on the lower west side of Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, striking people and leaving up to six people dead, according to two senior law enforcement sources at the New York Police Department.
The driver then exited the vehicle displaying imitation firearms and was shot by police, according to the NYPD. The individual is in police custody and is being taken to the hospital for treatment, sources at the NYPD said, adding that police are considering terrorism as part of the investigation.
There were several fatalities and numerous people injured, NYPD said in a tweet. Two senior law enforcement sources added that it appears to be deliberate act.
No others are being sought, the NYPD said. Police said to expect “many emergency personnel” in the area of Chambers Street and West Street on the lower west side of Manhattan.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo both said they are heading to the scene.
News footage showed crowds of spectators — some capturing the scene with cellphone cameras — gathered behind police lines. A white Home Depot truck with the front end smashed in was also visible.
Parts of several mangled bicycles littered the popular bike path along the West Side Highway and the Hudson River, as medics tended to the wounded in the background.
Witness accounts
Michael Corbin, the assistant real estate manager for District Council 37, the city’s largest public employee union, was standing outside the union’s lower Manhattan offices attending to a woman who slipped and fell on the sidewalk.
“The first responder to the event was a counterterrorism officer,” he said. “We were attending to the victim, getting her onto a stretcher and, at that moment, we heard gunshots. I recalled hearing five gunshots in quick succession and immediately the officer … left to investigate the situation from the direction we heard the noise coming from.”
Another witness, Ramon Cruz, described what he saw.
“What I saw was that the driver — he didn’t look like he was bleeding,” said Cruz. “He was dragging his foot. He looks frustrated, panicked, confused. People are running past me, saying, ‘He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.” I didn’t see any gun.
It was a white pickup truck. He looked pretty bad without bleeding or anything like that. I didn’t see him hit anybody. All I heard was the impact of a crash.”
Tuesday afternoon on Twitter, a user posted an image of a person lying on the ground near the scene of an incident near West & Chambers Streets in Manhattan.
