A British man is one of 14 people who were killed when an alleged Islamic State supporter drove a truck into crowds celebrating the New Year in New Orleans.
The city’s coroner said the preliminary cause of death for the British citizen was blunt force injuries.
Their identity has been temporarily withheld at the request of the family “pending finalisation of international arrangements”.
Dozens of people were also injured when 42-year-old army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s rented truck rammed into people in New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
A senior Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official has said the attack was “premeditated” and an “evil” act of terrorism, and said Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS”, also known as Islamic State.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told Sky News: “We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in New Orleans and are in contact with local authorities.”
The coroner has also identified the majority of the victims in the attack.
They are:
- Andrew Dauphin, 26, from Montgomery, Alabama
- Kareem Badawi, 23, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Brandon Taylor, 43, from Harvey, Louisiana
- Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, from Gretna, Louisiana
- Matthew Tenedorio, 25, from Picayune, Mississippi
- Nikyra Dedeaux, 18, from Gulfport, Mississippi
- Nicole Perez, 27, from Metairie, Louisiana
- Reggie Hunter, 37, from Prairieville, Louisiana
- Martin Bech, 27, from New York City, New York
- Terrence Kennedy, 63, from New Orleans, Louisiana
- Elliot Wilkinson, 40, from Slidell, Louisiana
- William Dimaio, 25, from Holmdel, New Jersey
The identity of one other victim is unknown, with efforts to identity the person continuing.
The preliminary cause of death for all the victims is blunt force injuries, according to the New Orleans coroner.
The FBI has also revealed that before his attack, Jabbar set fire to a house he had rented in an effort to destroy evidence.
He had placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms.
But the fire, which was started in the hallway, had extinguished itself before spreading to other rooms.
Bomb-making materials were found both at the rented accommodation in New Orleans and Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas. A home-made device suspected of being a rifle silencer was also found in the New Orleans home.
The FBI has said 35 people were injured in the attack, but it expects this number to rise in the coming days as more people go to hospital or contact the bureau.
The University Medical Centre New Orleans said it treated 30 patients who were injured in the attack. Some 13 remain in the hospital’s care, including eight in the intensive care unit.
Meanwhile, federal investigators say Jabbar used a very rare explosive compound in the two functional improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed by him before the attack, according to Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
The explosive has never been used in any US or European terror attack, officials said. Authorities are now investigating how Jabbar knew how to make this homemade explosive, and why the IEDs did not go off.
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