A look at some recent deadly attacks involving vehicle rammings

VANCOUVER – A car-ramming at a Vancouver street festival being staged by the city’s Filipino community is the latest in a spate of horrific incidents where vehicles were used as weapons. Here is a look at some other recent attacks:

NEW ORLEANS, Jan 1, 2025 — A driver plowed a pickup truck through a crowd of New Year’s Day revellers on the city’s historic Bourbon Street, killing 14 people. The FBI called the rampage an act of terrorism. The driver, Texas citizen Shamsud-Din Jabbar, died in a shootout with police. 

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20, 2024 — A car drove into a Christmas market in eastern Germany, killing at least five people and injuring more than 200. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AFD party.

ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rammed his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people in the country’s deadliest mass slaying in years. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details.

LAVAL, Que., Feb. 8, 2023 — Two children were killed and six others were injured when a man driving a public transit bus allegedly drove into the side of a daycare. Pierre Ny St-Amand is currently standing trial for two counts of second-degree murder among other charges, but Crown and defence lawyers have jointly argued he was likely suffering from psychosis at the time and have recommended he be declared not criminally responsible for the attack.

LONDON, Ont., June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family were killed while out for a walk when an attacker hit them with a pickup truck. Self-professed white nationalist Nathaniel Veltman was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, and the judge presiding over his trial ruled the attack amounted to an act of terrorism. 

TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drove a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto. Ten people died and 16 were injured at the time, but the death toll climbed to 11 in 2022 when another woman died of injuries sustained in the attack. Minassian told police he belonged to the online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men.

LONDON: June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drove a van at worshippers outside a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park area, killing one man and injuring 15 people.

LONDON: June 3, 2017 — Three attackers drove a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people were killed and the attackers were shot dead by police.

LONDON: March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rammed an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a police officer guarding the Houses of Parliament nearby. He was shot dead. 

 (SOURCE: The Associated Press, The Canadian Press)

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2025.