Eyewitnesses recounted the horror of the Bourbon Street attack that claimed at least 10 lives early in the morning on the first day of the new year.
A man drove a vehicle around barricades and down Bourbon Street at about 3:15 a.m., running down pedestrians. He then opened fire with a gun.
"All I seen was a truck slamming into everyone on the left side of Bourbon sidewalk. A body came flying at me," Kevin Garcia, 22, told CNN.
Whit Davis, a 22-year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, told CNN he was leaving a nightclub when the carnage occurred.
:"Everyone started yelling and screaming and running to the back, and then we basically went into lockdown for a little bit and then it calmed down but they wouldn't let us leave," Davis said.
"When they finally let us out of the club, police waved us where to walk and were telling us to get out of the area fast. I saw a few dead bodies they couldn't even cover up and tons of people receiving first aid."
At least 30 people were injured and the suspect in the incident was confirmed to have died, Fox News reported.
"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 in a statement Wednesday. "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."
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the man intentionally drove around barricades.
"This man was trying to run over as many people as he could," Kirkpatrick said.
Jim and Nicole Mowrer were visiting New Orleans from Iowa.
"We were pretty, pretty close to where it started," the couple Nicole told CBS News.
"Once it was past us, we did hear gunfire, saw police running that direction. Once the gunfire stopped, we stayed in the alcove until the gunfire stopped, came out into the street, and came across a lot of — several people who had been hit, [we] wanted to see what we could do to help."
