A look at vehicle ramming attacks across the globe

An SUV crashed into a crowd at a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver over the weekend, killing 11 people and injuring dozens of others in the latest deadly car ramming attack across the globe.

Other such attacks in recent decades have been inspired by extremist politics or been blamed on mental illness or misogyny.

What authorities call “vehicle as a weapon attacks” have reshaped cities, with concrete barriers around public spaces and anti-vehicle obstacles in new developments. In the 2025 attack along Bourbon Street that took place just before New Orleans hosted the Super Bowl, officials added blast barriers for added safety.

Here are the details of some major vehicle attacks:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 26, 2025 — A suspect has been charged with multiple counts of murder after an Audi SUV sped down a closed, food-truck-lined street and hit people attending a festival. Officials say 32 people were hurt, and those killed ranged in age from 5 to 65. Authorities say the suspect, a 30-year-old man, had a history of mental health issues.

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 1, 2025 — At least 15 people are killed and dozens are injured after a U.S. citizen from Texas rams a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter district at 3:15 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The FBI identifies the suspect as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar. He is killed in a firefight with police. The FBI says several possible explosive devices were recovered and that a flag associated with the Islamic State group was found in the truck.

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 are injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. Police arrest a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who has renounced Islam and supports the far-right AfD party.

ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35, in the country’s deadliest attack in years. Authorities say the suspect is upset about his divorce. He pleads guilty to endangering public safety by dangerous means and is sentenced to death.

WAUKESHA, Wisconsin, Nov. 21, 2021 — Six people are killed and dozens injured when a man drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee. Darrell Brooks Jr., who drove into the crowd after getting into a fight with his ex-girlfriend, has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of release. The judge rejects arguments from him and his family that mental illness drove him to do it.

LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family are killed when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls it “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist Nathaniel Veltman is sentenced to life in prison.

TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drives a rental van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge Street, the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian tells police he belongs to an online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men. He is sentenced to life in prison.

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight people. He is convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 10 life sentences plus 260 years in prison.

BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man rams a van into people on the Spanish city’s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring others. The Islamic State group claims responsibility. Several members of the same cell carry out a similar attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils, killing one person.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017 — During a “Unite the Right” rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. drives his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people. Fields is serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes.

LONDON, June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van into worshippers outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, killing one man and injuring 15 people. Osborne is sentenced to life in prison.

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

LONDON, March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, then fatally stabs a policeman guarding the Houses of Parliament. Masood is shot dead.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan. 20, 2017 – Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in Australia’s second-largest city. James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis and is sentenced to life in prison.

BERLIN, Dec. 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

NICE, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a rented truck for more than a mile (almost 2 kilometers) along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind. He is killed by police, but eight other people are sentenced to prison for helping orchestrate the attack.

STILLWATER, Oklahoma, Oct. 24, 2015 — A woman plows a car into a crowd at an Oklahoma State University homecoming parade, killing four people, including a toddler, and injuring many others. Adacia Chambers, who pleaded no contest to more than 40 felony charges, will serve four concurrent life sentences for the deaths. Witnesses have described a scene of chaos as bodies flew into the air from the impact and landed on the road.

APELDOORN, Netherlands, April 28, 2009 – Former security guard Karst Tates drives a car into parade spectators in an attempt to hit an open-topped bus carrying members of the Dutch royal family. Six people are killed and Tates dies of injuries the next day, leaving his full motive a mystery.

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, March 3, 2006 — University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-Azar drives an SUV into a crowd at the university, lightly injuring nine people, in a self-professed bid to avenge Muslim deaths overseas. He is sentenced to up to 33 years in prison.

SANTA MONICA, California, July 16, 2003 — An 86-year-old man crashes into a farmers’ market, killing 10 people and injuring dozens of others. He was sentenced to probation after being convicted of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Vancouver Police detectives walk along where a car drove through a crowd killing multiple people on the weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday April 28, 2025. (Rich Lam/The Canadian Press via AP)

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson left no uncertainty with his former team, the Detroit Lions, coming in Sunday to Soldier Field to close the regular season.

“We’re playing to win this week,” Johnson said on Monday.

Not that the Bears should be coasting yet, even against Johnson’s former boss Dan Campbell and a Lions team now out of the playoff chase. The Bears still have the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs to lock up with a win, and with it home field for the divisional round should they win their wild-card round playoff game at Soldier Field.

It will be difficult to do with defensive production like they had in Sunday night’s 42-38 loss at San Francisco.

Although they gave up a season-worst 496 yards, Johnson almost seemed to be trying to lift the confidence of the defense.

They did get a pick-6 on the game’s first play from scrimmage by linebacker T.J. Edwards, the first time this happened in an NFL game since Week 2 in 2023. They also forced the first punt by the 49ers since the end of November.

“It always comes back to fundamentals and so it’s gap integrity in terms of the run defense,” Johnson said of stopping the 49ers. “You know, we were playing a really good offense right now. So I think that needs to be stated because they’re averaging 35 points over the last five weeks. And so they’re hot.

“I didn’t feel like our offense did our part in the first half. We did not possess the ball. We had a couple three-and-outs. You look at our defense and they got a pick-6, they got a couple punts, and if we bow up in the red zone I think we feel better about (the defense’s) performance and that’s not to take anything away from San Fran, they did a great job, but there are certainly things fundamentally that we can improve on and we’re going to look to address this week.”

Maybe the most troubling aspect for the Bears was red zone defense.

Green Bay went 0-for-5 at scoring touchdowns in the red zone in Week 16. The 49ers went 5-for-5.

“Each week is a little bit different,” Johnson said. “Every offense has a different red zone story to them. They simply executed better than we did with their plan.”

They’ll hope to improve this plan Sunday or they could wind up with a third seed in the playoffs.

Passing. Caleb Williams’ 330 passing yards Sunday were a season high and the Bears accomplished this despite a foot injury that kept receiver Rome Odunze sidelined, and an illness that kept receiver Olamide Zaccheaus from playing. Their pass blocking held up despite tackle Darnell Wright playing with an illness that kept him from taking a Saturday flight with the team to California.

Wright flew in by himself on Sunday, the day of the game.

Run defense. They gave up 200 yards rushing, 8 more than when they struggled the previous week, and this looked much worse. Christian McCaffrey had runs of 41, 17 and 16 yards in a season’s best 140-yard effort, but the 49ers had been struggling to run all season. They came into the game averaging 3.6 yards per carry, which ranked next to last in the NFL.

WR Luther Burden. The rookie shook off an ankle injury that sidelined him against Green Bay and had career highs of eight receptions for 138 yards while also catching a TD pass. He only was on the field for 38 of the 66 offensive plays.

WR DJ Moore. He went from being the star against Green Bay with a spectacular 46-yard TD catch in tight coverage for the overtime win to making only one reception for 7 yards against San Francisco. In Moore’s defense, he was a late addition to the injury report with an illness sweeping through the team, but gutted out the game and participated in 92% of offensive plays.

Linebacker Noah Sewell suffered an Achilles tendon injury Sunday but Johnson did not update its severity. An NFL Network report said Sewell suffered a torn Achilles tendon. ... Defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka is in the NFL concussion protocol.

23 — After Sunday’s game, Williams has 23 games in his career when he hasn’t thrown an interception. No starting NFL quarterback has done this in his first two NFL seasons. Williams broke the mark held by Dak Prescott of 22 games without one in his first two seasons.

The Bears try to avenge a 52-21 loss they had in Week 2 at Detroit against the Lions (8-8), who have lost three straight.

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San Francisco 49ers tight end Jake Tonges (88) runs against Chicago Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards (53) during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers' Jauan Jennings scores go-ahead touchdown in 4th quarter against Chicago Bears during Niners' 42-38 win in NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)