At least 10 people were killed and 30 injured in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year’s Day, when a man deliberately plowed a pickup truck into crowds on Bourbon Street, local officials said. The authorities are investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

新奥尔良官员称，元旦凌晨，一名男子蓄意将一辆皮卡车撞向波旁街的人群，造成至少10人死亡，30人受伤。当局正在将这起袭击事件作为恐怖主义行动进行调查。

The incident was the latest in a long string of vehicle-based attacks against crowds, dating back decades. Vehicle ramming did not start as a terrorist tactic, but it has frequently been used by extremist organizations and radicalized individuals to kill, injure and instill fear.

几十年来，针对人群的车辆袭击事件层出不穷，此次事件是其中最新的一起。车辆冲撞并非一开始就是恐怖分子的战术，但极端组织和激进分子经常利用它来杀人、伤人和制造恐惧。

Why are vehicles used as weapons?

为什么车辆会被用作武器？

Cars and trucks are ubiquitous, especially in the developed world, and can easily be repurposed into deadly weapons.

小汽车和卡车无处不在，尤其是在发达国家，很容易被当做致命武器来使用。

Assailants with “limited access to explosives or weapons” can use vehicles to cause great harm “with minimal prior training or experience,” according to an F.B.I. handout on “Terrorist Use of Vehicle Ramming Tactics.”

根据联邦调查局一份关于“恐怖分子使用车辆冲撞战术”的宣传材料，“接触爆炸物或武器的机会有限”的袭击者“只需极少的训练或经验”，就能使用车辆造成巨大伤害。

Vehicle ramming attacks transform “a bland, everyday object into a lethal, semi-strategic weapon,” the researchers Vincent Miller and Keith Hayward wrote in a 2019 study published in The British Journal of Criminology. The tactic gives “marginal actors” the ability to “strike at the heart of urban centers and sow fear in the wider society,” they added.

研究人员文森特·米勒和基思·海沃德在2019年发表于《英国犯罪学杂志》上的一项研究中写道，车辆冲撞袭击将“平淡无奇的日常物品变成了致命的半战略性武器”。他们还写道，这种战术让“边缘行动者”有能力“袭击城市中心的核心地带，并在更广泛的社会中散播恐惧”。

After potential targets such as airports and public buildings became more heavily secured, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, some terrorists and other assailants began to use vehicles against more vulnerable targets, such as groups of people congregating in public spaces.

在机场和公共建筑等潜在目标的安保变得更加严密之后，特别是在2001年9月11日的袭击事件之后，一些恐怖分子和其他袭击者开始使用车辆袭击更容易受攻击的目标，如聚集在公共场所的人群。

What is the history of such attacks?

 此类攻击有怎样的历史？

Using vehicles to indiscriminately attack people has a long history, mostly unrelated to organized terrorism, such as the 22-year-old Czechoslovak woman who killed eight people in 1973, citing her grievances against society.

利用车辆对人进行的无差别袭击由来已久，大多与有组织的恐怖主义无关，例如1973年一名22岁的捷克斯洛伐克妇女以对社会不满为由杀害了8人。

Terrorist groups began using ramming attacks in the 1990s, according to a study by the Mineta Transportation Institute, part of San Jose State University. The majority of the 184 vehicle-ramming attacks between 1963 and mid-2019, when the study was published, took place in Israel and the West Bank.

根据圣何塞州立大学米内塔交通研究所的一项研究，恐怖组织从20世纪90年代开始使用冲撞袭击。从1963年到2019年年中这份研究报告发表期间发生的184起车辆冲撞袭击事件，大部分是在以色列和约旦河西岸。

Islamist groups: In a 2010 article in its magazine, Inspire, Al Qaeda encouraged adherents to use vehicles “to mow down the enemies of Allah.” But the tactic did not really catch on among would-be terrorists until several years later, when the Islamic State began to call publicly for vehicle attacks.

极端伊斯兰组织：2010年，基地组织在其《启发》杂志上发表了一篇文章，鼓励信徒使用车辆“碾碎真主的敌人”。但这一战术直到几年后才真正在潜在恐怖分子中被普遍采用，当时伊斯兰国开始公开号召发动车辆袭击。

New York City: A man drove a pickup truck into a crowded bike path in 2017 along the Hudson River in Manhattan, killing eight and injuring at least 11 before he was shot by the police. Notes found near the scene indicated the killer’s allegiance to the Islamic State, authorities said.

纽约市：2017年，一名男子驾驶一辆皮卡车冲入曼哈顿哈德逊河沿岸拥挤的自行车道，造成8人死亡，至少11人受伤，随后被警方击毙。当局表示，在现场附近发现的纸条显示凶手效忠于伊斯兰国。

Israel and the West Bank: The use of vehicles as weapons has become common, with dozens of attacks by Palestinians against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the past few decades. The tactic became more prominent in the 2010s, during a wave of “lone wolf” attacks by Palestinians who were largely unaffiliated with organized armed groups.

以色列和约旦河西岸：过去几十年，使用车辆作为武器已成为一种普遍现象，巴勒斯坦人对以色列士兵和平民发动了数十起此类袭击。这种战术在2010年代的“独狼”袭击浪潮中变得更加突出，这些袭击者大多与有组织的武装团体没有关联。

Nice, France: More than 80 people were killed and hundreds injured when a man drove a 19-ton truck through a crowd of spectators watching Bastille Day fireworks in southern France. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack; investigators said the driver had been self-radicalized by watching jihadist videos, with no evidence linking him directly to the terrorist group.

法国尼斯：一名男子驾驶一辆19吨重的卡车冲进法国南部观看巴士底日焰火的人群，造成80多人死亡，数百人受伤。伊斯兰国声称对此次袭击负责；调查人员称，司机因观看圣战视频而自我激进化，但没有证据表明他与恐怖组织有直接联系。

Charlottesville, Virginia: A man drove his car into a crowd of people protesting a gathering of white supremacists, killing one woman and injuring nearly 40 other people. He was convicted of first-degree murder.

弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔：一名男子驾车冲撞抗议白人至上主义者集会的人群，造成一名女性死亡，近40人受伤。肇事者被判一级谋杀罪。

夏洛茨维尔袭击。

George Floyd protests: During civil rights demonstrations after Mr. Floyd was killed by the Minnesota police in 2020, there were at least 66 vehicle attacks on protesters, according to Ari E. Weil, the deputy research director at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats of the University of Chicago. It was sometimes difficult to assess whether the attacks were spontaneous or premeditated.

乔治·弗洛伊德抗议活动：芝加哥大学芝加哥安全与威胁项目副研究主任阿里·E·韦尔表示，在2020年弗洛伊德被明尼苏达州警方杀害后的民权示威活动中，至少发生了66起针对抗议者的车辆袭击事件。有时很难判断这些袭击是临时起意还是有预谋的。

China: In November 2024, 35 people were killed after a man drove a vehicle into a crowd at a sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai. A week later, another man drove a car into a group of people near an elementary school in the central city of Changde, injuring multiple students.

中国：2024年11月，一名男子驾车冲撞南方城市珠海体育中心的人群，造成35人死亡。一周后，另一名男子驾车冲撞中部城市常德一所小学附近的人群，造成多名学生受伤。

Germany’s Christmas markets: In 2016, a man killed 12 people by driving a truck into a crowd in central Berlin. Last month, a man drove into a crowd in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing at least five people, including a 9-year-old child.

德国圣诞市集：2016年，一名男子驾驶卡车在柏林市中心冲撞人群，造成12人死亡。上个月，一名男子驾车冲入东部城市马格德堡的人群，造成至少五人死亡，其中包括一名九岁儿童。

警察在检查在德国马格德堡圣诞市集撞向人群的汽车，摄于12月。

How can the attacks be stopped?

如何才能阻止这些袭击？

As vehicle-based attacks have become more common, police and security forces have tried to make public spaces a tougher target, erecting barriers such as bollards — short, sturdy posts that are designed to stop a car or truck before it can reach a crowd or a building.

随着驾车袭击变得越来越普遍，警察和安全部队试图将公共场所变得更难以袭击，他们设立了立桩等障碍物——一种短小而坚固的柱子，旨在阻止汽车或卡车撞入人群或建筑物。

In 2018, New York City said it would install 1,500 metal bollards at some of the city’s most-visited locations and place large planters at other vulnerable spots, after two high-profile vehicle attacks the previous year.

2018年，纽约市表示，将在市内一些人流量最大的地点安装1500个金属立桩，并在其他易被攻击的地方放置大型花架。此前一年，纽约市发生了两起备受关注的车辆袭击事件。

But recent events have shown how difficult it can be to eliminate the threat entirely.

但最近发生的事件表明，彻底消除这一威胁是多么困难。

Germany began strengthening security measures around its seasonal Christmas markets after the 2016 attack in Berlin. But the assailant in Magdeburg evaded protective measures and drove into a crowded market, injuring hundreds in addition to those killed.

2016年柏林袭击事件发生后，德国开始加强圣诞市集周边的安保措施。但马格德堡袭击者避开了安保措施，驾车冲进人潮密集的市场，造成五人死亡，数百人受伤。

“The problem in the most recent case is that the perpetrator used a lane reserved for ambulances,” said Nicolas Stockhammer, a professor of security studies at Danube University in Krems, Austria. “He approached the area through a side where there was no protection.”

“最近这起事件的问题在于，行凶者使用了为救护车预留的车道，”奥地利克雷姆斯多瑙大学安全研究教授尼古拉斯·斯托克哈默说。“他是从没有防护措施的一侧接近该区域的。”

The city of New Orleans was upgrading security bollards along a section of Bourbon Street in the area where the attack occurred, according to its website. The city’s police superintendent said at a news conference that the perpetrator “went around our barricades” to conduct the attack.

据新奥尔良市政府官网，该市此前正在升级袭击发生地波旁街一段的安全立柱。该市警察局长在新闻发布会上表示，行凶者“绕过了我们的路障”进行袭击。