Investigators are searching for evidence, as to why a car that was being driven towards the Canadian border from the US accelerated before crashing and bursting into flames.
Recently this incident happened on the Rainbow Bridge at the US-Canada border near Niagara Falls. A US border agent was injured and the couple in the car were killed, the bridge is closed for two days, because the police want to find out what happened.
Initially, the crash triggered a major security scare on the eve of Thanksgiving, with authorities closing many ports of entry between Canada and the US in the area as a precaution.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul later ruled out terrorism, but many unknowns remain, including the identity of the couple in the car.
On Wednesdaythe explosion happened at around 11:30 local time (16:30 GMT) which caused serious disruption on one of the busiest travel days of the year ahead of American Thanksgiving.
Gov Hochul said the car travelled at a very high rate of speed, hurtling over an 8ft (2.4m) fence on the New York side of the border near a checkpoint. The vehicle was incinerated and only the engine was left.
US law enforcement confirmed the two individuals inside the car were a married couple. But yet it remains unclear why they crashed.
The mayor of Niagara Falls in New York, Robert Restaino told the New York Times that the couple were business owners from nearby Grand Island and were both in their 50s.
Restaino said they were driving an older Bentley model and were on their way to a concert in Canada, believed to be a Kiss show which was cancelled.
Among other possibilities, Restaino said police were looking at whether the car had suffered a mechanical failure, which caused it to accelerate.
A casino located less than a mile from the Rainbow Bridge on the New York side of the border, the Seneca Niagara Resort and Casino, where the vehicle stopped briefly, has said it is cooperating with the ongoing police investigation.
The Rainbow Bridge is a crossing for motor traffic and pedestrians over the Niagara River, and connects the cities of Niagara Falls, Canada, and Niagara Falls, in New York state.
The Mayor of Niagara Falls, Canada, Jim Diodati, told Canada’s public broadcaster that, he expected the crossing to reopen time on Thursday or Friday.
Today is a holiday in the US, so that may delay things. Diodati described the immediate aftermath of the blast as an emotional roller-coaster as officials had a hard time to sift through what had happened, and there were initial fears of a terrorist attack.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations of Buffalo said in a statement that it had concluded its investigation at the scene and it found no explosive materials, and no terrorism nexus was recognized.
The matter has been given to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation. The force said that they were working to identify those involved and notify their next of kin, but that due to the complexity of the incident, the investigation will take some time.
The closure has affected both Americans and Canadians in the area. One eyewitness, Toronto resident Dor Tamang, said he was processing immigration documents on the American side of the border when the blast happened, shaking the ground in the US Customs and Border Patrol building that he was in.
He and about a dozen other individuals were then told to walk across the bridge back to Canada, and were forced to leave their cars behind on the US side.
Other bridges which are connected to the US and Canada nearby – the Peace, Queenston-Lewiston and Whirlpool Rapids Bridges – were closed temporarily but by Wednesday evening they had reopened it to the public.
