Hyderabad: At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured when a driver rammed a pickup truck into a crowd during New Year celebrations on January 1 at Bourbon Street in New Orleans in USA.
Using vehicles as weapons to terrorise people is not a new phenomenon. For decades, terrorists have been using vehicles as weapons. According to a study by the Mineta Transportation Institute, part of San Jose State University, Terrorist groups began using ramming attacks in the 1990s. The majority of the 184 vehicle-ramming attacks between 1963 and mid-2019, when the study was published, took place in Israel and the West Bank.
Using vehicles to indiscriminately attack people has a long history, mostly unrelated to organised terrorism, such as the 22-year-old Czechoslovak woman who killed eight people in 1973, citing her grievances against society.
Why vehicles chosen as weapons to kill people?
In the western world, vehicles are easily accessible and can be repurposed into deadly weapons. According to an FBI handout on 'Terrorist Use of Vehicle Ramming Tactics', assailants with “limited access to explosives or weapons” can use vehicles to cause great harm “with minimal prior training or experience,”
The researchers Vincent Miller and Keith Hayward wrote in a 2019 study published in The British Journal of Criminology that vehicle ramming attacks transform “a bland, everyday object into a lethal, semi-strategic weapon,”. The tactic gives “marginal actors” the ability to “strike at the heart of urban centres and sow fear in the wider society,” they added.
After potential targets such as airports and public buildings became more heavily secured, especially after the September 11, 2001, attacks, some terrorists and other assailants began to use vehicles against more vulnerable targets, such as groups of people congregating in public spaces.
Measures to prevent vehicle-based attacks
As vehicle-based attacks have become more common, police and security forces have tried to make public spaces a tougher target. Erecting barriers such as bollards and sturdy posts that are designed to stop a car or truck before it can reach a crowd or a building.
In 2018, New York City said it would install 1,500 metal bollards at some of the city’s most-visited locations and place large planters at other vulnerable spots.
Germany began strengthening security measures around its seasonal Christmas markets after the 2016 attack in Berlin.
Methods used by terrorists to evade security measures
In Germany Christmas market attack, the perpetrator used a lane reserved for ambulances,” Nicolas Stockhammer, a professor of security studies at Danube University in Krems, Austria said. “He approached the area through a side where there was no protection.”
Major incidents where terrorists used vehicles to kill people
- December 21, 2024(Germany): A driver named Taleb plowed into a Christmas market crowd in Magdeburg, Germany killing at least two people, including a child. The city government reported at least 68 injuries, with 15 people in critical condition.
- November 11, 2024 (China): A driver killed 35 people and injured 43 others when he deliberately rammed his car into people exercising at a sports centre in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, police said. A 62-year-old man was detained at the sports centre in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai following the ramming, on the eve of the country’s premier aviation exhibition by the People’s Liberation Army that's hosted annually in the city.
- October 28, 2024 (Israel): A man died and at least 30 were injured after a truck hit a bus stop near an Israeli military base north of Tel Aviv. The bus stop, close to a central highway junction, was near Israel's Mossad spy agency headquarters and a military base.
- May 29, 2024 (Israel): Two IDF soldiers were killed in a car-ramming attack near the West Bank city of Nablus , the military announced.
- February 10, 2023 (Israel): An east Jerusalem resident drove a Mazda sedan into a bus stop in east Jerusalem’s Ramot neighbourhood, killing at least three and wounding four others. The driver was shot dead by a police officer at the scene.
- November 21, 2021 (USA): Six people were killed and more than 40 others were injured, after a Milwaukee man Darrell Brooks Jr drove an SUV through the Christmas parade in Waukesha in Wisconsin.
- June 6, 2021 (Canada): 20-year-old Nathaniel Veltman rammed a pickup truck into a family of Muslim Pakistani Canadian pedestrians at an intersection in London, Ontario, Canada. Four people were killed and the fifth was wounded.
- August 18, 2020 (Germany): A 30-year old Iraqi man deliberately drove into at least six vehicles, two of which were motorcycles, on Berlin’s 100 Autobahn ring motorway. Six civilians were injured in the attack.
- April 23, 2018 (Canada): A 25-year-old man who identified as an incel (involuntary celibate), drove a rented van onto the sidewalk on Yonge Street in Toronto’s North York business district. He proceeded to drive south, intentionally running over pedestrians. When he was stopped by police 10 minutes later, 11 people (nine women) were dead and 16 injured.
- October 31, 2017 (USA): Eight people were killed and almost a dozen injured when Sayfullo Saipov drove down a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center in New York City. Authorities found a note near the truck used in the incident, claiming the attack was made in the name of ISIS, a senior law enforcement official said.
- August 17, 2017 (Spain): At least 14 people are killed and about 100 injured after a van plowed through a crowd of people in a popular tourist district in Barcelona in Spain. The suspected driver got away but was later killed by police. ISIS’ media wing, Amaq, issued a statement claiming responsibility, saying that the attackers were “soldiers" of the Islamic State.
- June 3, 2017 (UK): London bridge attack, where a van ran over multiple pedestrians on the London Bridge. The men then drove to Borough Market, where they stabbed multiple people before being shot by police. Eight people were killed and 48 were wounded in this deadly attack.
- April 7, 2017 (Sweden): Stockholm vehicle attack, where a lone terrorist, Rakhmat Akilov, rammed his vehicle into the crowd on one of Sweden’s most crowded streets, which caused the death of five, injuries on tens.
- March 22, 2017 (UK): Khalid Masood drove a rented SUV across a crowded Westminster Bridge, leaving three dead and dozens wounded. Then he jumped out and attacked Const. Keith Palmer, an officer guarding Parliament, stabbing him to death before being shot to death by police.
- December 19, 2016 (Germany): A Tunisian man drove a tractor trailer into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people. In the wake of the attack, authorities conducted a manhunt for Anis Amri, 24, across Europe. He was shot dead by police in Milan in Italy, four days after the attack. Hours after Amri died, ISIS releases a video of him pledging allegiance to the terrorist group.
- November 28, 2016 (USA): In the Ohio State University attack, a car ramming attack and mass stabbing occurred at Ohio State University (OSU)'s Watts,Hall in Columbus, Ohio. The attacker, Somali refugee Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was shot and killed by the first responding OSU police officer, and 11 people were hospitalised for injuries.
- October 17, 2013 (Israel): Al-Radeideh’s brother Younis al-Radeideh rammed a tractor into the gate of an army base north of Jerusalem. One soldier was lightly injured. Soldiers immediately shot and killed Younis.
- July 14, 2016 (France): Deadly attack on Bastille Day- On July 14, a lone terrorist drove a cargo truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France killing 85 people and injuring 400 people.
- March 5, 2009 (Israel) : A construction worker drove his tractor into a police cruiser next to the Malha Mall. Two police officers were injured lightly, and other police officers killed the driver immediately. Police identified the driver as Marei al-Radeideh, a construction worker in his mid-20s who lived with his family in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
- September 22, 2008 (Israel): A 19-year-old Hamas member from East Jerusalem’s Jabel Mukaber neighborhood named Qassem Mughrabi drove his BMW into a group of soldiers standing next to Tzahal Square next the Old City’s Jaffa Gate. Soldiers shot the driver within seconds, according to a police spokesman while 19 soldiers were injured.
- July2, 2008 (Israel): The Jerusalem bulldozer attack, where a bulldozer rammed at least one car and overturned a commuter bus in the busy Jaffa Road in west Jerusalem in what was described as a "terrorist incident". Thirty were wounded and four killed, including the driver who was shot dead by security.
- February 14, 2001( Israel): A Palestinian man from Gaza drove a bus into a group of Israeli soldiers who stood at a bus stop at Azor junction, killing eight people—seven soldiers and one civilian, and injuring 26 others.
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