Rainbow Bridge: US-Canada border blast not terror-related, says NY governor

BBC News:

New York’s governor has said there is no sign of a terrorist attack in the explosion of a car on a US-Canada border bridge near Niagara Falls.

The vehicle was speeding from Niagara Falls, New York, towards the Rainbow Bridge when it crashed and was engulfed by a fireball at a checkpoint.

Two people inside the car were killed. A US border agent was also injured in Wednesday morning’s incident.

The bridge and three other border crossings in the region were closed.

The incident took place on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, one of the busiest travel days of the year.

In a briefing, Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters: “Based on what we know at this moment, there is no sign of terrorist activity with respect to this crash.”

She added that one of the people who died was a “local” from the western New York region.

It is still not clear whether the driver intentionally crashed into the checkpoint, she said.

The car travelled at a “very high rate of speed”, the governor added, and flew over a fence that was about 8ft (2.4m) high.