New York truck attack: First picture emerges of terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov

Driver reportedly cried 'Allahu akbar' as vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in Manhattan. 

The man accused of killing eight people by driving a truck down a busy New York cycle path was an Uber driver who may have lived in New Jersey after emigrating from Uzbekistan seven years ago.

As New York City reels from its latest terror atrocity, police have issued the first picture of their suspect, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov. 

Records show Saipov was a commercial truck driver who formed a pair of businesses in Ohio. He had also driven for Uber, the company said.

New York terror attack: What we know so far

An Ohio marriage license shows a truck driver with one of Saipov's addresses and his name, spelled slightly differently, married a fellow Uzbek in 2013. 

During his time in Fort Myers, Florida, several years ago, Saipov was "a very good person," an acquaintance, Kobiljon Matkarov, toldThe New York Times. 

"He liked the US. He seemed very lucky, and all the time, he was happy and talking like everything is okay. He did not seem like a terrorist, but I did not know him from the inside," Mr Matkarov said.

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He said Saipov later moved to New Jersey and began driving for Uber. San Francisco-based Uber said he started over six months ago. 

An acquaintance, Dilnoza Abdusamatova, said Saipov briefly stayed with his family in a Cincinnati suburb upon immigrating. 

"He always used to work," Ms Abdusamatova told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "He wouldn't go to parties or anything. He only used to come home and rest and leave and go back to work." 

Uzbekistan is investigating reports Saipov is a citizen of the Central Asian nation, an Uzbek Foreign Ministry official told reporters. 

CNN and other US media said Saipov left a note saying he carried out the attack in the name of Isis and shouted "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great" - when he jumped out of his truck.

Thousands of men from Central Asia have been fighting for Isis in Syria and Iraq, and Uzbek nationals or ethnic Uzbeks have carried out several attacks on civilians in Europe this year.

On New Year's day, an Uzbek gunman burst into a nightclub in the Turkish city of Istanbul and killed 39 people.

In April, an ethnic Uzbek man born in Kyrgyzstan blew up a metro train in the Russian city of St Petersburg, killing at least 15 people, including himself.

That same month, an Uzbek man rammed a truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing four people.