In New Orleans in the southern US state of Louisiana, a man drove his pickup truck into a celebrating crowd on New Year’s Eve. At least ten people were killed and 35 others were injured. According to the US Federal Police FBI, the attacker exchanged fire with the police after the crime and is now dead.
The FBI called it a “terrorist act.” The attack was reminiscent of the car attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg on December 20th, in which five people were killed and more than 200 others were injured.
The future US President Donald Trump linked the attack in New Orleans to illegal migration, without the police revealing anything about the identity of the perpetrator. “When I said that the criminals coming into the country are much worse than the criminals we have in the country… it has come true,” Trump wrote on his online service Truth Social.
During the election campaign, the right-wing populist stirred up sentiment against migrants with openly racist and xenophobic slogans. Contrary to the facts, Trump claimed after the New Orleans attack that crime rates in the US were at an unprecedented level. According to the FBI, however, the number of violent crimes has decreased significantly across the country in the USA.
