Witness describes seeing ‘terror’ car on Rainbow Bridge ‘fishtailing’ down the road at 100mph before blowing up: ‘There were car parts everywhere’

A witness has described the heartbreaking moment he saw a car traveling at more than 100mph explode in a ’40-foot fireball’ on Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls.

It remains unconfirmed whether the incident – ​​which killed two men who were in the car and injured one immigration officer – was a terrorist attack.

Mike Guenther, of Ontario, said he was walking along Main Street with his wife when he saw the vehicle speeding toward the Canadian border on Wednesday.

He described seeing “car parts in pieces everywhere” after the horror smash, which killed the vehicle’s occupants and injured a border guard.

“He swerved as he drove down this road here, fishtailing because he was going so fast,” he said.

“When he hit the fence there was a fire at the time, but when he went back up he must have hit the building and there was a big noise and he just shot up into the air and you couldn’t see anything but smoke.

Guenther told how the car crashed into a fence and erupted in a “40-foot fireball,” leaving the “car with pieces everywhere.”

A second witness described how officials ordered him to abandon his car and return to Canada on foot

‘We heard a big bang. I said there’s no way that guy can stop, he’s just going too fast.

‘Suddenly it went up into the air and then it was a fireball 30 to 40 feet high, I’ve never seen anything like that. It was absolutely incredible.’

Guenther said fire trucks were first on the scene and within 10 minutes there were “police everywhere.”

“We could see the fireball, that’s all we could see, it was just smoke everywhere,” he added. “I don’t think that person is going to survive, his car parts were everywhere.”

He described the car as “flying” at a speed of more than 100 miles per hour. “We could hardly see it was happening so fast,” he said.

“There was a car in front of him, he swerved around it, it looked like he hit the fence and the fire started.”

The blast occurred on the American side of the Rainbow Bridge, which connects the two countries across the Niagara River.

Three other bridges between western New York and Ontario were quickly closed as a precaution, and Buffalo-Niagara International Airport was close to all international flights.

A second witness described how, in the aftermath, people were marched back across the border into Canada by officials who told them to leave their cars behind.

The explosion on Tuesday claimed the lives of the vehicle’s two occupants and closed three other bridges between western New York and Ontario.

The FBI’s Buffalo field office said in a statement that it was investigating the blast, and investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the scene.

“What we’re going to do is get you all back to Canada, but unfortunately you’re going to have to go without your vehicles,” he said.

‘They said we have to go back without a car for safety reasons. We have to walk back across the bridge to Canada using the entry point and not the exit point because that’s where the explosion happened.”

The White House confirmed that the president has been briefed on the incident, while Canadian President Trudeau said “additional measures” are being considered and activated at border crossings in his country.

The FBI’s Buffalo field office said in a statement that it was investigating the blast, and investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the scene.

The FBI Terrorism Task Force is also investigating, and Fox News earlier in the day quoted law enforcement sources as saying the intent was a larger attack, but officials have yet to confirm the motive.

The car was traveling from the U.S. toward Canada at a high rate of speed while in the wrong lane — the lane where vehicles from Canada would enter the U.S., a source told the Buffalo News.

The out-of-control vehicle then collided with an obstacle near a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection booth.

Troops from New York City will travel to the border to assist efforts in the North, Mayor Adams confirmed.

NYPD troops have also been sent to support the unfolding situation in Buffalo, New York Mayor Eric Adams confirmed.

“The NYPD and our team have been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Buffalo following an explosion at the Rainbow Bridge, and we have already deployed NYPD officers to the state to support efforts on the ground,” he said.

“The NYPD and our partners have already enhanced security, and the city is on heightened alert for the upcoming holiday, so the public will see increased security at locations across New York City, including entrances and exits into and out of the city .

“We have also reached out and are in constant communication with partners at various levels of government to assist in this effort. Our first priority is and always will be the safety of New Yorkers.

“We will release additional information as it becomes available and will have more information to share this afternoon at our pre-arranged Thanksgiving Day Parade safety briefing.”