Washington:

A speeding car crashed into the bridge linking New York state and Ontario in Niagara Falls on Wednesday, killing two people in the vehicle and sparking safety fears that led to the closure of four U.S.-Canadian border crossings.

Hours later, federal and state officials said investigators had found no evidence of a terrorist act, although the circumstances surrounding the crash on the Rainbow Bridge remain unclear, leaving it yet to be determined whether it was accidental or intentional.

“At this time, there is no indication of any terrorist attack or threat to the public,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters Wednesday evening. Federal and local law enforcement officials echoed his comments at a separate news conference.

The FBI said in a statement that it had completed its investigation. “A search of the scene revealed no explosive material, and no terrorist nexus was identified,” the FBI said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Video of the crash, captured on security cameras and posted on Twitter by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, shows the car traveling at high speed toward the U.S., then striking an object and hitting the ground. Shown flying in the air before crashing. Exploding into flames.

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The driver and a passenger were killed in the wreck, and a CBP officer suffered minor injuries. He was treated at a hospital and released, an agency official later said.

Authorities have not identified the two people killed. CNN reported that the driver was a 56-year-old man who was traveling in a Bentley automobile with his wife to attend a concert by the rock group KISS.

The band’s performance in Toronto on Wednesday as part of the group’s farewell tour was canceled because member Paul Stanley came down with the flu.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on its website that Buffalo Niagara International Airport was closed, but Hochul said there were no disruptions.

‘Increased alert’

The crash came at a time when security concerns were heightened around the world due to the conflict in the Middle East and the peak of American holiday travel on the eve of Thanksgiving celebrations.

The Rainbow Bridge and all three other border crossings along the Niagara River between western New York and the Canadian province of Ontario – the Peace Bridge, the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge and the Whirlpool Bridge – were closed for several hours as a precaution.

Other international crossings remained open at “heightened alert status,” the governor said.

Officials said security measures have been increased at other airports and railways managed by the Niagara-Frontier Transit Authority, as well as at various locations around New York City.

The three bridges that were not involved reopened on Wednesday evening, but the Rainbow Crossing remained closed during the investigation and while officials assessed the safety of the crossing.

Hochul said the car that crashed crossed an 8-foot-high fence before being engulfed in a ball of fire, incinerating the vehicle, leaving very little of the vehicle intact, but the engine was undamaged and a dozen people were on the bridge. Debris was scattered on more than 100 security booths.

Witness Mike Guenther told Buffalo television station WGRZ-TV that he was walking near the bridge with his wife when the speeding car struck a fence at the crossing and was thrown into the air before exploding.

“He was flying at over 100 miles per hour,” said Guenther, who was traveling from Kitchener, Ontario. He said the vehicle, which he described as a luxury sedan, had gone out of control before it crashed.

“It was a ball of fire 30 or 40 feet high, nothing like that had ever been seen before,” Guenther said.