Is driving a truck or car into pedestrians the new terrorist method for mass murder? New York terror attack the latest example
THE attack in New York has provided the latest example of vehicles being used to plough into victims in the name of terror.
The incident, which is being treated as an act of terror, bears similarities to truck rampages in Stockholm, Nice and Berlin. Other devastating car attacks have taken place in Barcelona, London Bridge and Westminster Bridge.
What happened in the New York attack?
At least eight people were killed in Manhattan after a man in a rented pickup truck ploughed into cyclists and pedestrians in what police treated as a terror attack on 31 October 2017.
The driver allegedly emerged from the vehicle screaming "Allahu Akbar" and brandishing a paintball gun and a pellet gun in each hand before he was shot by police, witnesses say.
Witnesses described seeing bodies and bikes strewn over the ground with people screaming in panic at the bloody scene.
Police say the suspect drove the rented Home Depot truck down a popular cycle lane on the busy West Side Highway, just a few blocks from the new World Trade Center, at just after 3pm local time.
The vehicle crushed cyclists and pedestrians before slamming into a school bus, injuring two adults and two children on board.
The driver then got out of his vehicle waving a fake weapon in each hand.
What happened in the Barcelona terror attack?
A white rental van was driven at speed down the tourist-packed Las Ramblas shopping boulevard in Barcelona on 17 August 2017.
The terrorist driver then jumped out and made off on foot after killing 13 people, including British boy Julian Cadman, aged 7. Another victim was found stabbed to death nearby.
Just eight hours later an Audi car ploughed into crowds in the nearby town of Cambrils, killing one person.
Five warped terrorists jumped out of the car wearing fake suicide vests and wielding axes and knives.
Four of the five were felled by a single hero police officer who was working overtime for extra cash.
The terrorists had planned to set off a massive gas canister bomb but an explosion earlier blew up their hideout in the town of Alcanar.
What happened in the London Bridge attack?
Three terrorists wearing stab-proof vests drove a van into pedestrians at 50mph on London Bridge before attacking revellers with hunting knives on 6 June 2017.
Seven people died and at least 48 were left wounded following the attack, timed to coincide with the end of the Champions League final.
Staff at a packed pub locked the doors as the gang tried to smash their way in. One man was stabbed five times.
Armed cops flooded the scene in nearby Borough Market and the three killers were shot dead within eight minutes of the first call to emergency services.
Four explosions – confirmed as controlled blasts by the police – were later heard outside The Sun offices near London Bridge between 1:23am and 1:49am as security services swept the area.
What happened during the Stockholm truck attack?
A stolen truck was driven into shoppers and pedestrians at Ahlens department store in Stockholm, Sweden, on 7 April 2017.
The deadly attack, which occurred in the centre of the city at around 3pm local time, claimed the lives of five people including British man Chris Bevington and an 11-year-old girl.
The truck used in the attack was hijacked from a beer company and cops found a suspect device inside the stolen vehicle.
As many as 14 people were left seriously injured.
A Uzbek man, Rakhmat Akilov, was later arrested and pleaded guilty to a terrorist crime for ramming the truck into the crowd, according to his lawyer.
What happened during the Westminster Bridge attack?
On 22 March 2017 jihadi terrorist Khalid Masood he mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London.
After killing three on the bridge, Masood was then shot outside Parliament after slashing hero PC Keith Palmer to death.
Instead of using a truck as a weapon, Masood mowed a number of people down using a rented Hyundai 4×4 while driving on the pavement before crashing into the gates outside the Houses of Parliament.
He then ran into the palace grounds where he fatally stabbed PC Palmer.
The 52-year-old was shot by police and taken into custody, but later died.
In an apparent copycat attack, on August 14, a 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of preparing an act of terror after the silver Ford Fiesta he was driving collided with cyclists and pedestrians before crashing into a barrier at 7.40am.
A man and a woman were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Ben Wallace, the security minister, said the suspect was a “British citizen who came from another country originally”.
What other terror attacks have involved deadly trucks?
The Nice truck attack claimed the lives of 86 people and injured hundreds more in one of the worst modern terror assaults on European soil.
The atrocity, which took place on 14 July 2016, was carried out by brainwashed gunman Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel.
He used a 19 tonne truck to mow through crowds watching Nice’s Bastille Day fireworks.
Bouhlel mounted the pavement, driving through innocent people at 40mph, before jumping out of the truck and opening fire. He was shot dead by police.
An attack in Berlin on December 19, 2016, and involved a 32-tonne truck which was driven intentionally through the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, mounting a pavement before crashing into a crowd of shoppers.
It tore through market stalls leaving a bloody trail in its wake before ending its 150ft rampage outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the city centre.
Tunisian attacker Anis Amri, who had been denied asylum in Germany, was later killed by police in Italy after an international manhunt.
The horrific murder of Lee Rigby in London in 2013 also involved a vehicle driven by two depraved extremists.
Michael Adebolajo and accomplice Michael Adebowale murdered Fusilier Lee, 25, near his barracks in Woolwich, South East London.
They mowed him down in a car before hacking him with knives and a cleaver.