MONTREAL: A number of folks have been killed after a driver plowed right into a crowd at a avenue pageant on Saturday (Apr 26) within the Canadian metropolis of Vancouver, native police mentioned.
Authorities mentioned the incident occurred shortly after 8pm on Saturday (Sunday, 8am, Singapore time) in Vancouver’s Sundown on Fraser neighbourhood as members of the Filipino neighborhood gathered to rejoice Lapu Lapu Day.
The pageant, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial chief from the sixteenth century, falls this 12 months on the weekend earlier than Canada’s election.
Prime Minister Mark Carney mentioned in a put up on social media platform X that he was “devastated” by the “horrific occasions”.
“I provide my deepest condolences to the family members of these killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian neighborhood, and to everybody in Vancouver,” he mentioned.
“We’re all mourning with you.”
In line with Vancouver police, “plenty of folks have been killed and a number of others are injured.”
“The driving force is in custody,” they mentioned on X.
Photographs printed by Canadian broadcaster CBC confirmed emergency crews on the scene in addition to massive crowds on the block celebration earlier on Saturday.
Pageant safety guard Jen Idaba-Castaneto instructed native information website Vancouver Is Superior that she noticed “our bodies all over the place”.
“You do not know who to assist, right here or there. It is so stunning,” she mentioned.
British Columbia premier David Eby mentioned he was “shocked & heartbroken” by the information, whereas metropolis mayor Ken Sim mentioned “our ideas are with all these affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino neighborhood throughout this extremely tough time”.
“Our ideas are with the victims and their households – and Vancouver’s Filipino neighborhood,” Jagmeet Singh, chief of the left-wing New Democratic Occasion mentioned on X.
