Security tight as Bourbon Street reopens following new year violence

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the US have expressed concern about copycat vehicle-ramming incidents following the New Year's Day attack in New Orleans, as more details of the victims emerged and the city began to return to a sense of normality.

- Edward Helmore Anna Betts

New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street nightlife destination - the scene of the shocking mass murder by the military veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed 14 and wounded dozens before he was killed in a shootout with police - reopened amid tight security on Thursday.

Such attacks "are likely to remain attractive for aspiring attackers given vehicles' ease of acquisition and the low skill threshold necessary to conduct an attack", said the bulletin issued by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the US National Counterterrorism Center.

The Joan of Arc parade in the French Quarter is also still scheduled to take place on Monday to kick off carnival season before Mardi Gras, Antoinette de Alteriis, one of the organisers, told the Associated Press. She said they expect close to its typical crowd in the thousands.