At least five people have reportedly been injured after a car plowed into New Year’s Eve revelers near Madison Square Garden in New York City.
A mass casualty incident was said to have been declared following the horror crash on West 34th Street and 9th Avenue. Three NYPD officers are among those who were injured.
Police were called to the scene around 1:40am local time, as crowds would have been departing nearby Times Square after watching the ball drop to ring-in 2024.
The vehicle mounted the sidewalk and ran down civilians and cops before coming to a stop, reports suggest.
The driver, a 44-year-old male, is now in custody at Bellevue Hospital. It’s been reported that the police were chasing the car prior to the crash.
Pictures from the scene appear to show three cars involved in the wreck, two black cars and a yellow taxi. While a video showed a man being stretchered away, appearing to be conscious.
Pictures from the scene show at least three cars crashed into each other outside of a midtown parking lot
One car was reported to have mounted the sidewalk, resulting in the crash
At 4am, police were still cordoning off the area where the crash occurred
The horrific crash occurred just a few blocks from where a million people watched the famous ball drop
The incident began when cops came to intervene in a confrontation, one of those involved in the dispute, then tried to speed away from the scene, reports the New York Post.
The Post reports that a woman was pinned against a food truck and that the operator of that truck was also among the hurt.
A small army of NYPD officers were on patrols in the Big Apple on New Year’s Eve as part of a heightened security effort.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said there were ‘no specific threats’ to his city’s annual bash.
Nevertheless, police said they expanded the security perimeter around the party, creating a ‘buffer zone’ to allow them to head off potential demonstrations.
On New Year’s Eve 2022, a machete-wielding man attacked three police officers a few blocks from Times Square.
DailyMail.com has contacted the NYPD for more information on the crash.