The explosion of a car at the border between Canada and the United States left two dead and one injured yesterday in Niagara Falls. The trail of the attack was quickly ruled out.
• Read also: Explosion at Rainbow Bridge: the car was driving at full speed according to a witness
• Read also: IN PICTURES | Car explosion on Rainbow border bridge kills two
• Read also: Explosion at the Rainbow Bridge: on alert, Ottawa closes four bridges
The explosion of a vehicle on the border between Canada and the United States in Niagara Falls caused a spectacular blaze.
Photo REUTERS
“Based on what we know right now, and again everything is subject to change, there is no indication of terrorist activity in relation to this accident,” the state governor said Wednesday. New York Kathy Hochul at a press conference.
According to CNN, a vehicle, a Bentley, headed at high speed from the United States towards the Rainbow Bridge border crossing which marks the border with Canada in Ontario, around 11:30 a.m.
Investigators believe it was a man and his wife who were in the vehicle which drove at nearly 160 km/h before flying into the air, according to CNN.
The car was consumed and the border post was blown up.
Screenshot taken from X @NYCFireWire
“He apparently hit a guardrail and flew over an eight-foot-high fence,” said Governor Hochul.
The FBI is investigating
The driver, who lived in New York State, was reportedly planning to attend a KISS concert in Canada. But when planned concerts in Ottawa and Toronto were canceled due to the singer’s health problems, the couple instead went to a casino in the United States, according to CNN’s sources. The accident happened after he left the casino.
The vehicle then exploded on the American side. The two occupants were reportedly killed and a U.S. border agent was lightly injured.
In numerous images shared online, we could notably see that the explosion had completely disintegrated the vehicle in addition to blowing up one of the American border agents’ posts.
Quoted by the New York Timesa US law enforcement official said his investigators believed the explosion was the result of the car collision.
A suitcase was discovered near the vehicle, but it did not contain any explosives, according to the same source.
The Buffalo division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an investigation to shed light on the incident which occurred days before the busy American Thanksgiving weekend.
Repercussions everywhere
The region’s border crossings were all closed for several hours and security was particularly increased at others, notably at the Lacolle crossing, in Quebec.
Fearing a terrorist attack, the cities of New York and Toronto announced that security would be strengthened and that the number of police officers would be increased. However, no threat was issued towards the two metropolises.
At the time of the incident, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quickly reacted in the House of Commons.
A serious situation
“The situation is obviously very serious at Niagara Falls. A vehicle exploded at the Rainbow Bridge,” Mr. Trudeau announced in front of Parliament.
“There are still a lot of questions and we are trying to get answers as quickly as possible,” he added, refusing to want to characterize the event as an attack.
But unlike him, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada Pierre Poilievre immediately mentioned the hypothesis of a terrorist attack, thus following the American media Fox News, which subsequently backed down on its assertions.
– With AFP
