The New York Police Department is heightening security for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade after the Islamic State warned the event would make an "excellent target" for a Nice-style truck attack.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said Monday that police were prepared to line the parade route with hundreds of parked cars to serve as a barrier as they have done in previous years. The department has also visited 135 truck rental locations in the city to provide businesses with guidance on identifying suspicious behavior, the New York Post reported.
ISIS wrote in its English-language magazine Rumiyah this weekend that a lone-wolf attacker behind the wheel of a large truck could inflict mass casualties. The terrorist group singled out the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan as an "excellent target"
"The method of such an attack is that a vehicle is plunged at a high speed into a large congregation of [non-believers], smashing their bodies with the vehicle's strong outer frame while advancing forward–crushing their heads, torsos, and limbs under the vehicle's wheels and chassis–and leaving behind a trail of carnage," the article said.
ISIS called vehicle attacks "one of the most effective weapons in the terrorist arsenal."
A lone-wolf attacker killed 86 people in Nice, France this past summer after driving a cargo truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Angalis.
The Macy's parade will be held on Nov. 24 and spans 2.5 miles across New York City.