No sign of terrorism in Rainbow Bridge blast that killed two, injured border officer, N.Y. Governor says

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A car explosion at the busy border crossing linking the Canadian and U.S. sides of Niagara Falls killed two people on Wednesday and triggered a security clampdown throughout the Niagara-Buffalo region, but New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the incident did not appear to be terrorism related.

Two occupants in the car died and a U.S. border officer was injured when a vehicle, described by one witness as a large sedan, careened down an approach to the New York side of the Rainbow Bridge crossing and struck a secondary-inspection building, exploding in a towering fireball and raising a plume of smoke visible for kilometres.

“More information could arise but, based on the preliminary investigation, no sign of terrorist involvement in the horrific explosion that occurred here in western New York,” Ms. Hochul said during a late-afternoon press conference in Buffalo. U.S. law-enforcement officials agreed with that assessment at a separate news conference.

The governor said the driver of the car was from western New York and that the car appeared to hit a median, fly over a 2.5-metre fence and crash into a border crossing booth at 11:27 a.m.

Video and photographs posted to social media appeared to show a heavily damaged border booth, surrounded by scorched debris and flames.

“The border-patrol individual working in the booth was injured,” said Ms. Hochul. “The booth literally protected that individual.”

The officer was taken to hospital with minor injuries and has since been released.

As investigators scrambled to determine a cause, authorities shut down three other crossings in the area, the Lewiston, Whirlpool and Peace Bridge ports of entry. They have all since reopened, said Ms. Hochul, adding that only the Rainbow Bridge crossing and a railway line remain closed as the investigation continues.

The governor confirmed that “there is suspicion that the vehicle may have originated” in the vicinity of the Seneca Casino a few blocks from the border. She said it was too soon to say what caused the crash but appealed for calm.

“We need to dial down the temperature right now,” she said.

An eyewitness identified as Ontario resident Mike Guenther, told NBC’s Buffalo affiliate that he was walking down Main Street in Niagara Falls, N.Y., with his wife when he saw the car fishtail past at a high rate of speed. The car swerved to avoid another vehicle before hitting a fence and going airborne.

“Then, all of a sudden, he went up in the air and then it was like a ball of fire – like, 30 to 40 feet high. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

The bridge closings stranded thousands of travellers on both sides of the border. Toronto’s Paola Tamang was returning to Ontario after a trip when the car exploded, not far from where she was getting travel documents processed in a second-floor U.S. customs office. She and others ran to the window and saw a sedan engulfed in flames, with a massive cloud of black smoke filling the sky.

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“I just heard a loud noise, an explosion, and I was in the building and it completely shook. It felt like an earthquake,” Ms. Tamang said. “We just saw a big, huge fire, and the trunk was blown off and debris on the ground. … The fuel was on fire, and it was spreading toward the parked vehicles.”

Security video released by American officials showed that the vehicle had crashed into a secondary inspection point on the U.S. side.

Within a minute, Ms. Tamang said, a U.S. customs official told everyone in the office that they needed to evacuate the building, and they were escorted out a rear door. She was among about a dozen people who had to leave their vehicles on the U.S. side, and walk across the Rainbow Bridge. She said she planned to find a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont., overnight and wait until she could get her car back.

After the explosion, officials on the Canadian side of the border used snowplows to block access to the Rainbow Bridge, just a block away from the blinking neon lights of Niagara Falls’ tourist strip. Travellers trying to return to the U.S. on the eve of American Thanksgiving – one of the busiest travel days of the year – were left stuck on the Canadian side, wandering the streets and crowding into hotel lobbies.

A Ghanaian-born immigration consultant named Chorkor Millionaire said he was taking a family of four across the border into the U.S., and was waiting inside the American customs building at the Rainbow Bridge, when he heard a very loud bang. He said he had to abandon his car and carry a child back across the bridge to Canada.

“It was very scary … We were naturally worried. When it happened, it was right by the entrance, so how were we going to get out of there?” he said. “Now, we’re just here waiting. We don’t know what to do.”

Earlier in the day, before a targeted attack had been largely ruled out, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said officials were “taking this extraordinarily seriously” and the White House said President Joe Biden was “closely following developments.”

Authorities, meanwhile, ramped up security measures throughout the region, screening all cars entering Buffalo Niagara International Airport and closing some public buildings in Buffalo.

Jim Diodati, mayor of Niagara Falls, Ont., said the explosion has rattled the community, which relies heavily on cross-border travel, especially on the eve of U.S. Thanksgiving.

“This is the biggest retail time of the year, the U.S. long weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, this is the biggest time,” he said.

“Family members are getting together,” he added. “A lot of people on both sides of the border are getting together. Canadians are flying out of Buffalo airport. They’re going down to the Macy’s Day Parade. This is a big time, and especially for border-city communities.”

With reports from Dave McGinn, Carly Weeks, Ian Bailey and the Associated Press