A speeding car crashed and exploded on the American side of a Canada-U.S. border checkpoint in Niagara Falls on Wednesday, leaving two people dead, snarling holiday traffic and triggering familiar fears of a terrorist attack.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing an accelerating car that swerved to avoid another vehicle before hitting a curb that launched it into a U.S. Customs and Border Protection complex used for secondary customs inspections.
Two people were found dead at the scene, The Associated Press reported, citing an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to share details.
Four separate entry points between Canada and New York state were shut down as a precaution while law enforcement officials flooded the complex on the U.S. side of the Rainbow Bridge, which spans the Niagara River.
Videos posted to social media showed smoke and flames and the wreckage of at least one vehicle at the secondary checkpoint complex.
Conflicting media reports fuelled confusion throughout the afternoon about whether the U.S. was again under attack, particularly amid the superheated atmosphere of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
One Fox News report declared the explosion the result of an attempted terrorist attack with a vehicle that contained “a lot of explosives,” while a Reuters report citing unnamed Canadian officials pointed to a reckless driver.
AP cited one eyewitness who told a local television station that the vehicle had been approaching from the U.S. side of the border when it suddenly began to accelerate at a high rate of speed.
“All of a sudden, he went up in the air and then it was a ball of fire like 30 or 40 feet high,” Mike Guenther told WGRZ-TV. “I never saw anything like it.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that Canada was working closely with the U.S. and taking the matter extremely seriously before he excused himself to attend a briefing.
His national security adviser, the public safety minister, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency were “fully engaged and providing the necessary support,” he said.
“Additional measures are being contemplated and activated at all border crossings across the country. We are taking this extraordinarily seriously.”
Three other land crossings, including the Queenston Lewiston Bridge in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., The Peace Bridge in Buffalo, N.Y., and the trusted-traveller Whirlpool Rapids Bridge in Niagara Falls were all closed.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc called it a “violent circumstance” and a source of concern for both countries, but warned against speculation in the absence of more details.
“Any time a piece of infrastructure as important to Canada and the United States, like a border crossing, sees this kind of violent circumstance, it’s a source of concern for the Government of Canada and for the United States,” said LeBlanc.
“We’re taking this circumstance very seriously, but to speculate on the origin of this particular circumstance — the reasons why this may have happened — until we have more accurate information is simply not responsible.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she had been fully briefed and was monitoring the situation closely, including travelling to Buffalo to meet with law enforcement.
Hochul said state police were “actively working” with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor all of the state’s points of entry.
Niagara regional police say they are also monitoring developments and that there is no known threat on the Canadian side of the border.
Stephen Laskowski, president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, which represents about 4,500 trucking companies and independent drivers, said the closures were sure to have an impact on shipping efforts.
Each day, some 6,500 trucks carry $185 million in goods between Canada and the U.S., Laskowski said, although he acknowledged that truck traffic is lighter in the days just before U.S. Thanksgiving, which is Thursday.
“That’s a lot of truck traffic,” he said. “Right now, drivers are just pulled over, parked, waiting to get word on what to do.”
The incident comes just one week after FBI director Christopher Wray warned a congressional committee about a heightened risk of extremism linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
Wray said law enforcement in the U.S. is paying “heightened attention” to how events abroad could fuel acts of homegrown domestic violence.
“We have seen violent extremists across ideologies seeking to target Jewish and Muslim people and institutions through physical assaults, bomb threats, and online calls for mass casualty attacks,” he said.
“Our top concern stems from lone offenders inspired by — or reacting to — the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, as they pose the most likely threat to Americans, especially Jewish, Muslim, and Arab-American communities in the United States.”
RCMP officials refused to disclose any details about their role in the investigation.
“The RCMP is working with its domestic and international partners on this incident and we have no further comment at this time,” said RCMP spokeswoman Robin Percival.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that provincial police were assisting with the investigation.
“Our provincial law enforcement is actively engaged in assessing the situation,” Ford said. “They are working with local law enforcement and are providing support as required.”
