The explosion rocked the Rainbow Bridge connecting Canada and the United States.
The explosion rocked the Rainbow Bridge connecting Canada and the United States.
A vehicle exploded at a checkpoint on the American side of a US-Canada bridge in Niagara Falls on Wednesday, leaving two people dead and prompting the closing of four border crossings in the area, authorities said.
Two male passengers who were in the car were declared dead at the scene, according to law enforcement sources on the ground. A border agent was also injured.
Earlier today Fox News reported the explosion as “an attempted terrorist attack” citing sources telling the broadcaster that explosives were in the vehicle at the time.
The Telegraph reports US terrorism investigators were responding to the incident, but Canadian officials said it was too early to say whether it was a “deliberate act”.
State Governor Kathy Hochul told local reporters, “At this time, there is no indication of a terrorist attack,” she said. “Let me repeat that: At this time, there is no indication of a terrorist-involved attack here at the Rainbow Bridge in Western New York.”
Authorities have identified the registered owner of the vehicle involved, law enforcement sources tell CNN.
The explosion was on the Rainbow Bridge a day before the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.
The White House said President Joe Biden was “closely following developments,” and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said officials were “taking this extraordinarily seriously.”
”The Rainbow Bridge is one of four border crossings connecting Ontario to western New York. The others are Lewiston, Whirlpool and Peace Bridge.”
The vehicle was trying to enter the US at the time of the explosion.
The moment the vehicle exploded was captured by surveillance cameras in the area, CNN reports.
Photos and video taken by news organisations and posted on social media showed a security booth singed by flames.
Mike Guenther from Ontario was walking with his wife near the Rainbow Bridge when he says they saw a car driving at high speed. It swerved around a car in front of it and then slammed into a fence.
”He went up in the air and there was a ball of fire like 30 or 40 feet [9-12m] high,” Guenther said.
“He was flying, like over a hundred miles [160km] an hour,” Guenther told local media.
Border police were present at the time of the crash and within 10 minutes more law enforcement officers had swarmed the area.
”All of a sudden there was just police everywhere.”
The vehicle was fishtailing and out of control just before the explosion, Guenther said.
”I said there’s no way that guy’s going to stop, there’s no way he can stop, he’s just going too fast.”
Law enforcement personnel block off the entrance to the Rainbow Bridge. Photo / AP
Sanchit Chatha, his wife Reyshu and their 13-year-old daughter, Trisha, had stopped in Niagara Falls for lunch en route home to Toronto from Buffalo when they started getting news notifications about the explosion. Worried friends called, knowing the family was in the area.
Trisha was concerned at seeing the bridges to Canada shut down, her mother said.
“She has a math test tomorrow,” the mother explained as the family waited to find out when the crossings would open.
The explosion rocked the Rainbow Bridge connecting Canada and the United States.
Ivan Vitalii, a Ukrainian visiting Niagara Falls, told the Niagara Gazette that he and a friend were near the bridge when they “heard something smash”.
“We saw fire and big, black smoke,” he told the paper.
Debris is scattered about inside the customs plaza at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing. Photo / AP
From inside Niagara Falls State Park, Melissa Raffalow said she saw “a huge plume of black smoke” rise up over the border crossing, roughly 45 metres away from the popular tourist destination. Raffalow told AP in a message that police arrived soon after, urging visitors to disperse as they began cordoning off the street.
Raghu Bhattarai said by phone that he was inside his restaurant, the Niagara Tandoori Hut, near the bridge when he heard a sound he described as a “boom.” A few minutes later, he saw black smoke rising.
The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority posted on X that all cars arriving at the Buffalo Airport would undergo security checks. The authority said travellers should also expect increased screenings.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government is taking the explosion “extremely seriously”.
LeBlanc is receiving regular updates from US authorities, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and border service agencies, CNN reports.
The Buffalo Niagara International Airport has closed to both international arriving and departing flights, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration.
About 6,000 vehicles cross the Rainbow Bridge each day, according to the US Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory. About 5 per cent is truck traffic, according to the federal data.
