New Orleans: Scores of Mardi Gras revellers injured as truck ploughs into Endymion parade

A suspected drink driver ploughed his pick-up truck into a crowd watching a Mardi Gras parade, injuring 28 people including children and a police officer.

Twenty-one people were taken to hospital after the crash at the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans, five of them in a "guarded" condition.

The victims' ages ranged from three or four to people in their 30s and 40s, said city emergency services director Dr Jeff Selder.

Mr Harrison said the injured police officer was undergoing tests and in "good spirits".

One woman at the scene told The New Orleans Advocate that a truck whisked by her just feet away.

Carrie Kinsella said: "I felt a rush, it was so fast."

Kourtney McKinnis, 20, told the Advocate that the driver of the truck seemed almost unaware of what he had just done.

"He was just kind of out of it," she said.

The accident came during one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras when thousands of people throng the streets of Mid-City to watch the elaborate floats and catch beads and trinkets thrown from riders.

One person was taken into custody after the crash.

Asked whether terrorism was suspected, police chief Michael Harrison said it looked like a case of drink driving.

"We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated," he said.