Sugar Bowl postponed over New Orleans attack

The Sugar Bowl, a major U.S. college football playoff game that attracts tens of thousands of fans to New Orleans, has been postponed by one day following Wednesday’s deadly truck-ramming attack, officials said.

"All agree that it's in the best interest of everybody... that we postpone the game for 24 hours," Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said during a press conference about the matchup between the University of Georgia and the University of Notre Dame.

The game, originally scheduled for Wednesday evening, will now take place on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. (2100 GMT), organizers announced.

"The postponement will allow for additional security resources to be deployed in order to meet the typical standards for a major event at the Caesars Superdome," the statement read, noting that some officers had been redeployed to assist with the attack investigation.

A Georgia student was critically injured in the attack, the university’s president confirmed.

Notre Dame officials said all team personnel had been accounted for.

The two teams are competing for a spot in the college football playoff semifinals.

The Sugar Bowl will be held at New Orleans’s Superdome, which is also set to host the NFL’s Super Bowl on 9 February. The venue’s maximum capacity for football games is just under 75,000.

Each year, visitors flock to New Orleans for Mardi Gras festivities, which culminate on 4 March, although the celebrations begin weeks earlier.