AKIPRESS.COM - Donald Trump said he had ordered the Department of Homeland Security to step up its “extreme vetting program” following a vehicle attack in New York on Tuesday that left eight people dead, The Guardian reports.

“I have just ordered homeland security to step up our already extreme vetting program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!” the president wrote on Twitter, hours after a man driving a pickup truck ploughed through a bike path in lower Manhattan in what has been treated as an “act of terror”.

The victims include a Belgian citizen and five Argentinians.

Trump ran for office in 2016 pledging to crack down on illegal immigration for security reasons, and has called for “extreme vetting” of foreigners entering the US. He did not specify how or when practices would change.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity identified the attacker as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek citizen who came to the US legally in 2010. Saipov has a Florida driving license but may have been living in New Jersey, reports said. The suspect was shot by police and is in custody. He underwent surgery and was in critical condition but was expected to survive.