New Orleans was in full swing in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.
Revellers were spilling out of bustling bars and packed clubs in the city’s French Quarter – an area often referred to as the beating heart of the city’s famous nightlife.
“It was all young kids out. Lots of 19, 20, 21-year-olds,” recalled Derrick Albert, a local DJ who plies his trade each night at the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets.
That intersection is home to a packed tourist hotel, a store selling ice cream and chocolate fudge and restaurants selling oysters and daiquiris in large plastic to-go cups.
But at about 03:15 (09:15 GMT), the youthful revelry turned to terror as a man – identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas resident and US Army veteran – drove a rental truck at high-speed into a crowd.
He killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens, some seriously.
Grainy CCTV footage shows the moment the attack began, with the white pick-up truck driving up Canal Street past other vehicles, before taking a right on to Bourbon Street, swerving around a police car, speeding up suddenly and ploughing into the crowds.
“We just heard this squeal, the rev of an engine and a huge, loud impact,” Kimberly Stricklen, a visitor to New Orleans, told Reuters. “Then, the people, screaming. The sound of crunching metal and bodies.”
The vehicle would continue for three blocks – striking more bystanders along the way – until the driver crashed and came to a stop near the corner of Bourbon and Conti streets.
Jabbar then left his vehicle and shot at police. He was killed by their return fire.