A vehicle exploded Wednesday at a US border crossing which provides access to Canada near Niagara Falls. First described as “extremely serious” by Justin Trudeau, the situation seemed to be moving towards an “isolated incident” in the evening, while three of the four border crossings initially closed were preparing to reopen.
“There is no evidence at this point that this is terrorist activity,” New York State Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters. Calling it a “horrific incident”, she also confirmed the deaths of the two occupants of the car.
“It seems to be an isolated incident,” added Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, in an interview with RDI late Wednesday afternoon. The latter confirmed information first reported by several American media, namely that the car causing the accident had never been on Canadian soil.
Dominic LeBlanc added that he was awaiting an update from his American counterpart, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in the evening, but considered the reopening of three of the four cross-border bridges closed in the afternoon “reassuring”.
The first information first came when the FBI announced early this afternoon that its Buffalo office was investigating “a vehicle explosion at the Rainbow Bridge, a border crossing between the United States and Canada at Niagara Falls “.
The vehicle in question was on the American side when it accelerated before hitting the border crossing facilities leading to the Rainbow Bridge, according to several American media reports.
A border agent was also reportedly injured, but his life was not feared.
Thanks to surveillance videos, the authorities would have reconstructed the journey of the owner of the vehicle in the preceding hours, according to what the CNN channel reported, citing police sources.
The vehicle reportedly ended up in the parking lot of a casino in New York State, prompting authorities to be cautious before declaring the incident a terrorist attack, according to CNN.
PHOTO DEREK GEE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Debris after the explosion at a US border crossing which provides access to Canada near Niagara Falls.
“I turned and saw something in the air. […] It was a vehicle,” an eyewitness to the events, a local tour guide, Rickie Wilson, told several local media.
The vehicle would have fallen not far from the gatehouse of the border post before “black smoke” escaped from the place, he added, specifying that the course of events made him think “of something that we see in Hollywood.
“We heard a very loud noise, then I saw smoke coming from the border crossing,” confirmed Rajsu Dhattarai, an employee of the Niagara Tandoori Hut, a restaurant adjacent to the scene of the tragedy.
At the end of the afternoon, the latter and his colleagues were still confined to their premises while a large perimeter was in place around the border post.
No explosives on board
According to three police sources cited by the New York Timesthe car involved in the accident did not contain explosives.
Information corroborated by an analysis of videos of the scene carried out by the full professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the École Polytechnique de Montréal, Charles Dubois, at the request of The Press.
“We can’t see very well, but it seems that the blast effect from the explosion is weak, so [il est] unlikely to be dealing with an improvised explosive,” he explains. The presence of a large flame on the scene, an indication of a possible dispersion of gasoline, also supports the thesis that the explosion did not come from a self-ignition (cook-off), according to him.
However, the authorities did not skimp on precautions in the hours following the event.
The Ontario Provincial Police initially announced that the Rainbow Bridge was closed in both directions, towards Canada and towards the United States.
In response to this event, the Buffalo – Niagara International Airport temporarily tightened its security measures. Notably, cars arriving at the airport were subject to additional checks, as were travelers, who could expect more checks. Additional officers have also been deployed to Pearson Airport in Toronto, Peel Regional Police said.
“This is a situation that is evolving from minute to minute,” said Minister Dominic LeBlanc at the time.
Trudeau reacts in the House
Asked to provide details on this incident in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first detailed that four ferries linking Ontario to New York State were no longer accessible due to the explosion. earlier.
“It’s an extremely serious situation,” he initially said.
After answering two questions on this subject, one in French and one in English, the Prime Minister left the House to devote himself to following up on the file.
His office said he had been briefed on the situation by his national security and intelligence adviser, and was in contact with US authorities.
US President Joe Biden was also briefed on the details of the Rainbow Bridge explosion
The Rainbow Bridge event came as threats of a possible terrorist attack in New York City have increased recently, a direct result of escalating violence in the Middle East, according to the CBS channel, Monday.
With Tristan Péloquin, Mélanie Marquis, Vincent Larouche and Bruno Marcotte, The Press