Surveillance video captures U-Haul truck crash ‘rampage’ that injured eight in Brooklyn

Several people have been struck by a U-Haul truck in Brooklyn, New York in a chaotic “rampage” that was caught on surveillance footage.

Multiple pedestrians were hit by the vehicle and a bicyclist was dragged by the truck on Monday morning.

The incident took place at about 11am at three different locations near 5th Avenue and Bay Ridge Parkway, the authorities have said.

Police attempted to conduct a traffic stop at 10.49am after spotting the truck moving erratically. The driver fled the police and struck multiple people, according to The Independent’s Richard Hall at the scene.

A spokesperson for the New York Fire Department said eight people have been injured, with two being in critical condition, two in serious condition, and four with minor injuries, NBC reported.

The driver was then arrested near the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel, according to New York councilman Justin Brannan.

He tweeted: “A man driving a U-Haul went on a rampage in Bay Ridge ... Several people were hit and badly injured. We have no idea of motives at this time but this wasn’t an accident.”

The truck struck several people after driving onto a sidewalk in Bay Ridge, ABC7 reported.

One of those who were injured was a man in his 30s who was taken to Lutheran Hospital in critical condition. Three men riding mopeds sustained minor injuries after being hit by the truck.

The driver took off down Gowanus Expressway following the crashes and took the exit onto Hamilton Avenue before he was surrounded by police on Columbia Street in Red Hook.

“The police approached this driver and tried to get him to pull over and at that time he said something to the effect of ‘I want to die’ and proceeded to start driving on the sidewalks in Bay Ridge,” Mr Brannan said, according to ABC7.

The police have detained the suspect for questioning and a bomb squad has been called to the scene.

Roberts Boyce, the former NYPD Chief of Detectives, told ABC News that the incident reminds him of what took place in 2017 when a man killed multiple people while driving down a crowded street in Manhattan.

“It’s the first thing I thought,” Mr Boyce said. “I worked the Sayfull Saipov case, I remember how dangerous it was and what he did and how deadly it was. That was the first thing that came to mind when I heard [about] the rented truck. So let’s hope it’s not that and it’s a person in mental distress at this point and it’s nothing more than that. It’s difficult to link the two right now but how can you not think about that?”

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