Trump Calls for Harsher Measures After Deadly NY Truck Attack

US President Donald Trump has responded with a call for increased security, after a truck ran into a Lower Manhattan bike path on Tuesday, October 31, killing eight people and injuring 11.

“I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!” Trump said via twitter.

The incident along the Hudson River is the first terror strike after 9/11.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to continue their lives without fear of further attacks. “The bottom line is we are going to go about our business. We are not going to be deterred.”

At the same time, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference that the incident was a “lone wolf” attack adding that “there’s no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme. These are the actions of one individual meant to cause pain and harm and probably death”.

European leaders, meanwhile, including French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the attack, expressing their solidarity with the US, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “Our hearts go out to the people of our great host city; today all of us at UNHQ are New Yorkers.”

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims and to President Trump, adding that Greece stands beside the American people.

US President Donald Trump.

European Council President Donald Tusk also expressed Europe’s support to the American people describing the terror attack as a “sick but futile effort to terrorize the people of New York and the free world”.

Trump went on to say via twitter that “Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE USA! … We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!”

According to media reports, the suspect driving the truck and later shot by police was identified as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant said to have entered the US in 2010.

Meanwhile, CNN reported that the man left a note saying he carried out the attack in the name of the militant Islamic State group.