Four border crossings between the United States and Canada have been closed after a vehicle exploded at one of them, in the checkpoint located on a bridge near Niagara Falls. According to sources cited by the American network CNN, the two occupants of the car have died. The FBI office in Buffalo has said it was investigating the explosion at Rainbow Bridge, which connects the two countries across the Niagara River.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed a security booth that had been burned by flames. The explosion occurred on the US side of the Rainbow Bridge, which connects the two countries across the Niagara River.
The images shared show smoke, fire on the ground and the booth burned. The videos place the fire in a United States Customs and Border Protection area, just east of the main vehicle checkpoint.
Speaking to WGRZ-TV reported by the AP, a witness named Mike Guenther said he saw a vehicle speeding toward the crossing from the U.S. side of the border when it swerved to avoid another car, crashed into a fence and exploded. “Suddenly it went up into the air and then it was a ball of fire about 30 or 40 feet high.”, has manifested. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.
Ivan Vitalii, a Ukrainian visiting Niagara Falls, said he and a friend were near the bridge. “We heard something crash, we saw fire and a huge cloud of smoke,” he told the Niagara Gazette, according to AP.