Sugar Bowl postponed by a day over deadly truck-ramming New Orleans attack

New Orleans, United States: The Sugar Bowl, a major US college football playoff game that has drawn tens of thousands of fans to New Orleans, has been postponed for one day in the wake of 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 told a press conference about the game pitting the University of Georgia against the University of Notre Dame.

The game, originally scheduled for Wednesday evening, will now begin on Thursday at 3:00 pm (2100 GMT), organizers said in a statement.

"The postponement will allow for additional security resources to be put in place in order to maintain the typical standards of a major event in the Caesars Superdome," the statement said, noting that some officers were redployed to the attack probe.

A Georgia student was critically injured in the attack, the university's president announced. Notre Dame announced that all team personnel had been accounted for. The two teams are vying for a spot in the college football playoff semifinals.

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The Sugar Bowl is to take place at New Orleans's Superdome, which also will host the NFL's showpiece Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events of the year, on February 9. The venue puts maximum capacity for football games at just under 75,000.

Visitors also flock to New Orleans every year for the annual Mardi Gras festivities. The final day of those celebrations is March 4, but weeks of parties and revelry take place in the run-up.