Status: 11/22/2021 5:16 a.m.
An SUV drove into a street parade in a small town in the US state of Wisconsin. Several people were killed. The background to the incident is still unclear.
A car crashed into a crowd at a Christmas street parade in Wisconsin, USA. More than 20 people were injured and there were “several deaths,” said the local police. The fire department announced that eleven adults and twelve children had been taken to hospitals.
The incident occurred in Waukesha, a suburb of the city of Milwaukee. The background was initially unclear. It was open, among other things, whether the car was deliberately driven into the crowd. At a press conference on Sunday evening, the police expressly left open whether there could be a terrorist background.
A person in custody
Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson said a red SUV broke barriers, pulled into the main street with the parade and rammed more than 20 people. He spoke of a “tragic incident” and at the same time stressed that there was no further threat. A suspicious vehicle was found and a person was in custody.
Many families with children had attended the parade. On video clips that were initially not verifiable and spread on social media, chaotic and disturbing scenes could be seen: An off-road vehicle was filmed from various perspectives in various snapshots, which first raced past participants in the parade at high speed, at other points various people in rams and runs over the street and finally breaks through road barriers and rushes away. The video recordings show people screaming and running. In one scene the car barely races past a child dancing in the street.
The governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers, expressed his dismay in a tweet and spoke of a “pointless act”.