Police say 28 people have been injured when a pick-up truck ploughed into a crowd watching the Krewe of Endymion parade to celebrate Mardi Gras in the US city of New Orleans.
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The crash happened on Saturday about 6.45pm local time, along the parade route near Orleans and Carrollton Avenues.
The driver appeared to be drunk, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
One man has been taken into custody.
Police Chief Michael Harrison said police do not suspect terrorism and the suspect is being investigated for driving while intoxicated.
He said that 21 people were hospitalised with five victims in "guarded condition". Seven others declined to be hospitalised.
A witness, Kourtney McKinnis, 20, told the New Orleans Advocate that the driver of the silver pick-up truck seemed almost unaware of what he had just done.
"He was just kind of out of it," she said.
Another witness, Carrie Kinsella, said the truck was travelling down Carrollton Avenue when it hit a white Chevrolet Malibu, sending it into a power pole.
Initial reports from New Orleans Police Department spokeswoman Ambria Washington were that about a dozen people were in a critical condition.
The number of injured people quickly rose to 28.
Television pictures from New Orleans showed discarded Mardi Gras decorations strewn across the cordoned-off streets.
Trey Klechack told The Times-Picayune he saw the vehicle hit the crowd.
"There were bodies flying off the hood while he was still driving," he said.
"I remember there was one girl that was standing to our right that was pretty close to the street.
"We were five to six feet [1.5 metres to 1.8 metres] from the street, and she was directly on the corner. I guess she walked out at the wrong time, but she definitely got hit by the car and was flung into the air.
"She was a blonde-haired girl wearing a brown wig. When I ran over there, I saw the brown wig lying on the street."
Mr Klechak said the driver was trying to weave around people, and then hit the accelerator.
"It seemed like his foot never left the gas pedal."
The Krewe of Endymion is the largest of 80 parades held during the New Orleans Mardi Gras.
The parades attract more than one million visitors to the southern US city each year.
This is not the first time that a parade has descended into chaos. During a parade in 2013, 19-year-old Akein Scott, fired multiple shots into a Mardi Gras crowd, leaving 19 people wounded.
