Toronto, Canada – Canadian police reported Sunday that eleven people died in the mass crash that occurred late Saturday in the city of Vancouver, in western Canada.
Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai added at a press conference that the death toll could rise in the coming hours because the attack, which he said was not an act of terrorism, left dozens injured, many of them seriously.
“This is the darkest day in our city’s history, as thousands of members of Vancouver’s Filipino community gathered for an important cultural celebration. One person has shattered our collective sense of safety,” Rai said.
Mental problems of the perpetrator of the accident
The police official confirmed that the alleged perpetrator of the massacre, who was arrested immediately after the accident at the scene, is an individual “known” to the police and who suffers from mental health problems.
“I can say that the person in custody has a significant history of interactions with police and mental health professionals. I cannot publicly identify the person we have in custody because charges have not yet been filed,” he said.
Rai explained that the police believe it was not a terrorist act because “there is no evidence that this individual had any religious or political beliefs” and because of the individual’s past history.
The police report said the incident began at 8:14 p.m. local time Saturday (3:14 a.m. GMT Sunday) on a busy city street during the final moments of the Filipino-Canadian community’s Lapu Lapu street festival, when tens of thousands of people were still present.
A witness to the accident told Canadian Public Radio and Television that he saw a vehicle accelerate and hit pedestrians participating in the street festival at full speed.
The Prime Minister rules out “an active threat”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ruled out “an active threat to Canadians” following last night’s deadly multiple vehicle crash in Vancouver.
In an appearance this morning at a hotel in Ontario, where he is campaigning for tomorrow’s election, Carney added that his government believes the gunman who plowed into a crowd with a speeding car “acted alone.”
“I’m shocked, devastated,” said Carney, who canceled a campaign event he was scheduled to hold this morning while his team fine-tunes the rest of his program, which was scheduled to take place today in Vancouver.
Authorities have not released the identities or ages of the victims. But Rai, visibly shaken, did indicate that there were men, women, and young people among the dead. Pressed on whether children were among the dead, given that the festival was a family event for the Filipino-Canadian community, the police chief simply said, dismayed, “There were young people.”
The mass attack occurred shortly before the country’s general elections on Monday.
It so happens that the leader of the social-democratic New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh, the third-largest political party in the country, was at the festival when the vehicle plowed into the crowd.
Speaking to the media, Singh, who was not injured in the incident, said: “I have no words to describe what I saw.” He added: “I don’t know what to say, it’s just horrific. I’m devastated.”
The EU is “horrified” after the fatal crash in Vancouver
The European Union’s (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, expressed her “horror” after the mass attack in Vancouver.
“Horrified by the tragic scenes in Vancouver, where lives were lost and many people injured at a festival,” Kallas said in a social media post.
For his part, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. offered his “deepest” condolences on Sunday and said he was “completely devastated” after a man plowed into a crowd participating in a Filipino-Canadian community celebration in Vancouver, Canada.
“On behalf of the Philippine government and the Filipino people, we would like to express our deepest condolences to the victims and our sympathy to the strong and successful Filipino community in Canada,” Marcos Jr. said in a statement.
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