Just a random Ukrainian visitor named Ivan as your witness
Update: Witnesses saw smoke, fire from vehicle at Rainbow Bridge
Mark Scheer | mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com 2 hrs ago
The Rainbow Bridge has been closed to all traffic amid reports of a vehicle explosion just outside the border inspections plaza on the American side.
All local bridges to Canada including Lewiston-Queenston, Whirlpool and the Peace Bridge in Buffalo have all been closed to traffic following a car explosion at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls.
Video by Daniel Ziraldo
Traveling down Niagara Street, the car sped onto the bridge plaza, went through a fence separating the inbound lanes from the outbound lanes, and toward the inspection lanes where it exploded, according to law enforcement sources at the scene.
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Two occupants of car killed in explosion at Rainbow Bridge
Two occupants of car killed in explosion at Rainbow Bridge
Two occupants of a car that exploded after it sped the wrong way into an inspection booth at…
Two occupants of the car were killed in the explosion.
A border protection agent was injured but not seriously. He's being treated for non-life threatening injuries at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, sources said.
All international bridges in WNY are closed to traffic
All international bridges in WNY are closed to traffic
All local bridges to Canada including Lewiston-Queenston, Whirlpool and the Peace Bridge in …
Patrol cars representing multiple local police agencies, including the Niagara Falls Police Department and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, are on the scene following the incident that witnesses told the Niagara Gazette occurred at around 11:20 a.m. Wednesday.
A captain with the Niagara Falls Police Department who was directing motorists and pedestrians near the inspections plaza at the intersection of Niagara Street and Rainbow Boulevard said he could not comment on the situation before telling a reporter that he should leave the area because it was a "dangerous situation."
Two witnesses who were present in the area when the incident happened told the Gazette that they heard a loud noise that sounded like an explosion and saw a large cloud of smoke near the inspections station on Wednesday morning shortly before police arrived on the scene.
Ivan Vitalii, a visitor to the Falls from Ukraine, said he and a friend were at the 7-Eleven convenience store in the 400 block of Niagara Street when they observed a car exit the parking lot and travel toward the bridge. Vitalii said he and his friend moved down to the bridge area where they observed what appeared to be the same car on fire near the entrance to the bridge.
"We heard something smash," he said. "We saw fire and big, black smoke."
Niagara Falls resident Dan Ziraldo said he was leaving the parking lot at the Seneca One Stop outside Seneca Niagara Casino on Niagara Street when he noticed what appeared to be a thick cloud of smoke coming from the area near the Rainbow Bridge.
Zilardo said he moved down to the intersection of Rainbow Boulevard and Niagara Street where he saw what looked to him like a car on fire.
"It looked like a vehicle just crashed into the bridge," he said.
The Niagara Gazette is continuing to follow this breaking news story and will provide alerts as they are made available.