Multiple people were dead and a person was in custody after a truck apparently drove onto a bike path in lower Manhattan, according to authorities and witnesses.
J. Peter Donald, the New York police assistant commissioner for communication, said on Twitter that police were responding to reports that shots had been fired. Police later said officers shot the suspect.
Multiple people were dead, a senior New York City official said. An exact number and more details weren’t immediately clear. Initially, it was reported as a shooting near Chambers Street and the West Side Highway.
A truck was nearby, and images showed damaged bicycles in a bike path. Police believe it was an intentional act, according to a senior New York City law enforcement official.
NBC New York, citing sources, reported that a box truck drove onto a bike path, traveling the wrong direction, and struck several people before colliding with a Home Depot rental truck.
“You could see cyclists and pedestrians badly injured,” said MSNBC correspondent and producer Louis Burgdorf, who was outside a building where Canal Street meets the West Side Highway, which is north of Chambers and the highway.
A spokesperson for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the mayor was on the way to the area and that there was “no active threat.” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was also headed to the scene.
Donald said on Twitter that police were responding to reports of shots fired and that more details would be provided when available.
NBC New York reported that the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has joined the NYPD on the scene.
