At least 8 dead and many others injured in incident in Lower Manhattan. Alleged offender shot by police.
United States president Donald Trump has declared he wants the man charged with committing the latest terrorist attack in New York City to be sentenced to death.
In a tweet earlier today, Trump wrote in capitals letters that suspect Sayfullo Saipov "should get death penalty".
The state of New York no longer has the death penalty after it was abolished in 2007. Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is the state's stiffest penalty.
President Trump has previously said he wanted Saipov to be taken to Guantan Bay, the US military detention centre in Cuba that detains suspected terrorists indefinitely.
Saipov was shot and taken into custody by police, after he injured 19 people near the site of the World Trade Centre attacks, at 3.15pm on Tuesday afternoon local time as New Yorkers were gearing up for Halloween celebrations.
The 29-year-old man, originally from Uzbekistan, reportedly told police today he was happy with what he did as he sat in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery.
"He's talking. He's laughing. He's very happy with what he did," a source told NY Daily News. "He feels accomplished."
The source also claimed Saipov wanted to fly the Islamic State flag in his hospital room, a request Trump was furious about.
Appearing in court on Wednesday, Saipov was sitting in a wheelchair, hospital gown and handcuffs.
His lawyers did not seek bail or enter a plea. Federal prosecutors said he was "consumed by hate and a twisted ideology".
Details continue to emerge around Tuesday's deadly terror attack, the first in New York since the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda hijackings that brought down the Twin Towers killing 2996 people and injuring 6000 others.
Saipov is accused of using a white Home Depot pick-up truck to mow down innocent people in the Tribeca neighbourhood, killing eight and injuring 11 others.
He leapt from the ute with fake guns in both hands, was heard to scream "Allahu Akhbar" and ran toward a crowd of children before he was gunned down by police.
Saipov, who worked as an Uber driver, lived in a red-brick apartment with his wife and three young children in Paterson, New Jersey, about an hour's drive from where he carried out the attack.
Sayfullo Saipov was arrested on terrorism charges. Photo / AP
The New York Police Department said Saipov had been planning the attack for weeks - and chillingly, followed "exactly to a T", instructions IS had posted online about how to carry out a terrorist attack.
Law enforcement sources said they are investigating the possibility that Saipov made a "dry run" less than a week before the attack.
Cops have discovered he drove his truck into the city at least twice in just one day - and three days later, committed his sickening act of violence.
NYPD deputy commissioner for intelligence and counter-terrorism, John Miller, said: "It appears that Mr Saipov had been planning this for a number of weeks.
