A MAN intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers in New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others, officials said.

A black ISIS flag was flying from the truck’s rear bumper, and the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said.

The man driving the vehicle has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, the FBI said.

In televised remarks Wednesday evening, U.S. President Biden said the FBI has determined that just hours before the attack, Jabbar “posted videos to social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”

The vehicle was an electric Ford pickup truck that appears to have been rented, the FBI said. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said on social media Jabbar rented the truck Dec. 30, while living in the Houston area, before heading to New Orleans.

FBI special agent Alethea Duncan said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon that investigators “do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible” for the attack, and the FBI believes he may have had help carrying it out. Duncan said the FBI is looking at a “range of suspects” and does “not want to rule anything out” at this stage of the investigation. The FBI is also working to determine his potential affiliations or associations with terrorist associations.

At this point, neither ISIS nor any other foreign terror organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attacker drove around barricades and up onto the sidewalk of Bourbon Street, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said, avoiding barriers that had been placed by police. Kirkpatrick said the man “was trying to run over as many people as he could.”

“We had a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and he still got around,” Kirkpatrick said.

The man then exited the car and opened fire on officers, the FBI official said. He died after exchanging gunfire with three responding officers, the FBI said. He was struck by police fire and declared dead at the scene, the New Orleans Police Department said. Two police officers were hit by gunfire but were in stable condition. (SD-Agencies)