New York attack: 8 killed in Manhattan

Photo: Andrew Kelly/REUTERS

A man drove a rented pickup truck onto a busy bike path in Manhattan on Tuesday (October 31st), killing eight people and injuring 11. According to officials six of them died at the local and two others at a hospital. Five of those victmins were friends from Argentina, and they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school.

“This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The suspect, identified as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov (29), is from Uzbekistan and lives legally in the US since 2010. He had smashed the pickup into a school bus and jumped out of his truck. As he left the vehicle, a policeman shooted and injured him.

Sirus Minovi, who was at the local during the attack said to the New York Times that he and his friends heard people screaming words like ‘gun’, ‘shooter’ and ‘run away’. He tought it was a Halloween Prank, but realized that it wasn’t when he saw the man staggering through the crowd, waving guns and screaming workds that he could not understand.

According to the governor Andrew Cuomo, Saipov was radicalized in the US. “The evidence shows — and again, it’s only several hours, and the investigation is ongoing — but that after he came to the United States is when he started to become informed about ISIS and radical Islamic tactics,” completed.

On Twitter, Donald Trump responded to the attack saying: “In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!”