Rampaging driver strikes Times Square pedestrians

Multiple injuries on the spot at the Times Square in New York, US, May 18, 2017. [Photo by Calvin Zhou/China Daily]

It was a scene that New Yorkers and unsuspecting tourists have become used to in a post-9/11 world, with the initial fearful reaction that it was terrorism and then the subsequent exasperation that one of the busiest intersections in the world was shut down.

Initial reports brought to mind vehicle attacks on pedestrians, such as those in recent months in Britain, France, Germany, Israel and Sweden.

Times Square was evacuated in May 2010 when a car bomb that failed to explode was found in an SUV. Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American and Taliban-trained militant, later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Six months ago, the city completed a $55 million renovation of Times Square that turned roadways into pedestrian zones.

Thursday's incident invoked comparisons to July 2016, when a man driving a truck killed at least 84 people, 10 of them children, and injured 202 in the French city of Nice. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.

On March 22, five people were killed in London and about 40 injured after a car hit pedestrians and a suspected Islamist-inspired attacker stabbed a policeman near Britain's parliament.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.