A vehicle has ploughed into a crowd of about 50 people at a Black Lives Matter protest Friday afternoon in Manhattan, with multiple people injured, a spokesman for the New York City Police Department said.
The scene in New York after the incident. Photo: Twitter / Steven Bognar
The woman behind the wheel of the BMW sedan was detained for questioning by law enforcement, the department said.
The incident occurred just after 4pm at the corner of 39th Street and Third Avenue in the Murray Hill neighborhood adjacent to Midtown Manhattan, police said.
None of the injuries appeared to be life threatening and the motorist involved remained at the scene, police said. But few other details were immediately available.
Local media reports said six people were struck, but it was unclear as to how many people were taken to the hospital.
Some accounts on social media described a chaotic scene around a stopped car surrounded by protesters, before the vehicle lurched into the crowd, sending some people and bicycles tumbling. Those reports could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters.
Police and several local media outlets said the protest was sponsored by the racial justice group Black Lives Matter.
A Reuters photographer at the scene and at least one media outlet said that demonstration was held in solidarity with nine undocumented immigrants staging a hunger strike in a New Jersey lockup, in custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
- Reuters