A person drove a automobile right into a crowd at a Filipino heritage competition within the Canadian metropolis of Vancouver, killing a minimum of 9 folks and injuring an unknown variety of others, police mentioned Sunday.
The automobile entered the road at 8:14 p.m. on Saturday and struck folks attending the Lapu Lapu Day competition, the Vancouver Police Division mentioned in a social media publish.
A number of different folks have been injured, however the precise variety of casualties wasn’t instantly accessible.
A 30-year-old Vancouver man was arrested on the scene and the division’s Main Crime Part is overseeing the investigation, police mentioned.
“Right now, we’re assured that this incident was not an act of terrorism,” the police division posted early Sunday.
Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai informed a information convention that the person was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media exhibits a younger man in a black hoodie along with his again in opposition to a chain-link fence, alongside a safety guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
“I’m sorry,” the person says, holding his hand to his head.
Rai declined to touch upon the video, however mentioned the particular person in custody was a “lone male” who was “recognized to police in sure circumstances.”
The competition was being held in a South Vancouver neighborhood. Video posted on social media confirmed victims and particles strewn throughout a protracted stretch of highway, with a minimum of seven folks mendacity motionless on the bottom. A black SUV with a crumpled entrance part might be seen in nonetheless pictures from the scene.
Carayn Nulada mentioned that she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the road and used her physique to defend them from the SUV. She mentioned that her daughter suffered a slim escape.
“The automobile hit her arm and she or he fell down, however she acquired up, in search of us, as a result of she is scared,” mentioned Nulada, who described youngsters screaming, and pale-faced victims mendacity on the bottom or wedged beneath automobiles.
“I noticed folks operating and my daughter was shaking.”
Nulada was in Vancouver Normal Hospital’s emergency room early Sunday morning, looking for information about her brother, who was run down within the assault and suffered a number of damaged bones.
Docs recognized him by presenting the household along with his wedding ceremony ring in a tablet bottle and mentioned that he was secure, however could be dealing with surgical procedure.
James Cruzat, a Vancouver enterprise proprietor, was on the occasion and heard a automobile rev its engine after which “a loud noise, like a loud bang” that he initially thought could be a gunshot.
“We noticed folks on the highway crying, others have been like operating, shouting, and even screaming, asking for assist. So we tried to go there simply to verify what was actually really occurring till we discovered some our bodies on the bottom. Others have been lifeless, others like, , injured,” Cruzat mentioned.
Nic Magtajas described an SUV roaring by means of the gang at excessive velocity.
“I noticed a bunch of individuals go over, go excessive up from the influence of hitting the automobile,” mentioned Magtajas, 19.
Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim mentioned in a social media publish that town would supply extra info when doable.
“I’m shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at at the moment’s Lapu Lapu Day occasion,” Sim mentioned. “Our ideas are with all these affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino neighborhood throughout this extremely tough time.”
Vancouver had greater than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9% of town’s whole inhabitants, in keeping with Statistics Canada, the company that conducts the nationwide census.
Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood as much as Spanish explorers who got here to the Philippines within the sixteenth century. The organizers of the Vancouver occasion mentioned that he “represents the soul of native resistance, a robust drive that helped form the Filipino id within the face of colonization.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney and different political leaders on the ultimate day of the election marketing campaign posted messages expressing shock on the violence, condolences for victims and help for the neighborhood celebrating its heritage.
“I supply my deepest condolences to the family members of these killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian neighborhood, and to everybody in Vancouver. We’re all mourning with you,” Carney wrote.
Carney delayed his marketing campaign occasions.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a press release expressing sympathy with the victims and their households.
“The Philippine Consulate Normal in Vancouver is working with Canadian authorities to make sure that the incident shall be totally investigated, and that the victims and their households are supported and consoled,” he mentioned.
The nation’s Division of Overseas Affairs mentioned that “we keep in mind the 1 million robust Filipino neighborhood in Canada and pray for his or her continued power and resilience.”
In 2018, a person used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto. Eight ladies and two males died. Alek Minassian, who was discovered responsible, informed police that he belonged to a web-based neighborhood of sexually annoyed males, a few of whom have plotted assaults on individuals who have intercourse.
