The driver of a pickup truck who is said to have ploughed into a crowd at a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans had a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit.

The New Orleans Police Department said Neilson Rizzuto, 25, was being held at the city's jail facing charges of first-degree negligent vehicular injuring, hit-and-run driving causing serious injury and reckless operation of a vehicle.

Police chief Michael Harrison said a breath test showed Rizzuto's alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit.

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

Image: Twenty-one people were taken to nearby hospitals


The incident happened on Saturday evening during the Krewe of Endymion parade, one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras, in the state of Louisiana.

Twenty-eight people were hurt as the vehicle careered into the crowd, 21 of whom were taken to hospital.

The victims' ages ranged from a one-year-old to people in their 50s, police said.

Kourtney McKinnis told the New Orleans Advocate that the driver seemed almost unaware of what he had done in the aftermath of the crash.

"He was just kind of out of it," the 20-year-old said.