Rainbow Bridge: Two die in explosion in Niagara Falls after car crashes at ‘very high speed’
Two people have died after the vehicle they were in exploded on a bridge connecting the US and Canada.
The car crashed into a checkpoint on the US side of the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls at high speed and caught on fire, according to Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
Senior law enforcement officials said there was no indication that a bomb was inside, as an initial search did not find a secondary explosive or device.
Police at the scene
Authorities are trying to determine whether the crash was intentional, and the FBI has warned that the situation is “very fluid”.
An initial assessment suggests the incident was caused by a reckless driver.
The Rainbow Bridge, which connects the two nations across the Niagara River, has been shut along with three other border crossings in the area.
Meanwhile, the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport in New York state has now been closed to departing and arriving international flights.
The incident comes a day before Thanksgiving – a US public holiday when millions of Americans visit friends and family. Many people will have already started their journeys.
Canada’s public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc said it was too soon to say if the crash was a deliberate act.
Police officers block the entrance to the Rainbow Bridge
‘Ball of fire’
Images and video purportedly from the border control scene showed a blaze and debris on the ground. A security booth was singed by flames.
Witness Mike Guenther said he saw a vehicle speeding towards the crossing from the US side of the border when it swerved to avoid another car, crashed into a fence and exploded.
“All of a sudden he went up in the air and then it was a ball of fire like 30ft or 40ft high,” he told WGRZ-TV.
Ivan Vitalii, a Ukrainian man visiting the area, told The Niagara Gazette that he and a friend were near the bridge when they “heard something smash”.
“We saw fire and big, black smoke,” he told the newspaper.
Speaking in Canada’s parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “This is obviously a very serious situation in Niagara Falls.
“We are taking this extraordinary seriously.”
He said “additional measures” were being contemplated and activated at border crossings across Canada.
Police officers found a handgun, a silencer and a red notebook described as a “manifesto” when they arrested Luigi Mangione.
The 27-year-old was arrested in December 2024 and charged with killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City.
Mangione‘s lawyers want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual trial in Manhattan about statements he allegedly made and items they said police seized from his backpack during his arrest at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
The objects include a 9mm handgun prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing, a silencer, a magazine with bullets wrapped in underwear and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a healthcare executive.
Mangione with his attorney. Pic: Reuters
The defence contends the items should be excluded because police did not get a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack.
Prosecutors deny claims Mangione was illegally searched and questioned.
They also want to suppress some statements he made to police, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers asked him questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.
Last week, Mangione watched surveillance videos of the killing of Mr Thompson, 50, as he walked to a New York City hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges.
The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
This week’s hearing concerns only the state case, but Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases.
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In September, a judge dismissed two terrorism counts against Mangione, finding prosecutors had not presented enough evidence Mangione intended to intimidate health insurance workers or influence government policy.
Trial dates are yet to be set in either the state or federal cases.
Paramount has launched a £108.4bn hostile bid for Warner Bros, challenging Netflix, which had reached a $72bn takeover deal with the company.
Paramount said on Monday that it was going straight to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) shareholders with a $30 per share in cash offer for the entirety of the company, including its Global Networks segment, asking them to reject the deal with Netflix.
On Friday Netflix struck a deal to buy WBD, the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max
The agreement means Warner Bros Discovery’s library of film and TV successes including Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones will come under the same roof as Stranger Things and Squid Game.
The cash and stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt.
But Paramount says its deal will pay $30 cash per share, representing $18 billion more in cash than its rivals are offering.
In a statement, Paramount said it was making a “strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders” and a “superior alternative to the Netflix transaction”.
File pic: iStock
David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: “WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company.
“Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.
“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process.
“We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”
Paramount said it had submitted six proposals to WBD in the course of 12 weeks, but that they were never “meaningfully” engaged with.
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