Death toll in New Orleans attack rises to 15

The death toll from the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, United States, has risen to 15.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) named the suspect as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an army veteran from Texas.

Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revellers and immediately opened fire, killing 10 and injuring at least 35, including two police officers.

Witnesses said some of the victims had tyre tracks on their bodies.

The FBI said the 42-year-old was driving an electric Ford pickup truck vehicle that had a black ISIS flag flying from the rear bumper.

President Joe Biden described the attack as “despicable” in a press conference late Wednesday evening.

Biden said the FBI told him the suspect had uploaded videos to social media “mere hours before the attack” indicating that he was inspired by the Islamic State and expressing a “desire to kill”.

Hours after the attack, a Tesla cybertruck exploded just outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, killing the driver and injuring seven people.

Biden said investigators are looking into whether the explosion is linked to the New Orleans incident, but added that there is “nothing to report… at this time”.

The president said he has made “every resource” available to law enforcement and counter-terrorism police to “make sure there is no remaining threat to the American people”.

According to a now-removed LinkedIn profile, Jabbar had worked in various roles in the US army, including in human resources and IT, before he was discharged. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010.

Jabbar had criminal records relating to traffic offences and theft.