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OTTAWA — A part of downtown Ottawa was locked down Saturday after a person barricaded himself in Parliament Hill’s East Block, sparking a significant police intervention that lasted for hours.
5 hours after an unidentified man blockaded himself within the historic constructing, Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Inspector Mark Bouwmeester advised reporters the standoff with police continued and the incident was thought of “suspicious”.
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“We’re at present in touch with the person and our precedence is to resolve the state of affairs peacefully,” he stated. He refused to say if the suspect was armed or recognized to police.
Simply earlier than 3 p.m. Saturday, OPS stated an unauthorized particular person acquired into the historic constructing and barricaded himself. “There are not any recognized accidents,” the OPS stated.
The incident led to a major police response involving brokers from the Parliamentary Protecting Service (PPS), the OPS and the RCMP, who locked down the constructing and adjoining space.
Dozens of police automobiles surrounded the constructing and the stretch of Wellington St. in entrance of the Parliamentary precinct was closed to site visitors and pedestrians. Hill staff weren’t allowed to enter.
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The East Block homes the places of work of senators and their employees. As Parliament shouldn’t be at present sitting, the constructing was doubtless principally unoccupied.
Shortly after the suspect burst into the workplace constructing, PPS issued a uncommon alert ordering senators and their employees to “seek shelter within the nearest room. Shut and lock all doorways and conceal.”
Then the identical order was despatched to the Prime Minister’s Workplace and Privy Council Workplace within the constructing throughout the road, ordering any parliamentarians and employees there to do the identical.
Roughly fifteen minutes later, one other memo ordered East Block occupants to evacuate, suggesting police knew that the intruder didn’t pose a significant menace to constructing occupants.
Quite a few tactical models and bomb-sniffing canine had been seen outdoors the East Block constructing all through the afternoon.
Inside an hour of the alert, police deployed what gave the impression to be a bomb disposal robotic towards the constructing. Later, two extra such robots had been deployed nevertheless it was unclear in the event that they had been ever despatched into the East Block.
Practically 5 hours after the incident started, police had nonetheless not shared details about the intruder’s id or obvious motive.
Senator Patrick Brazeau posted a observe on X after the alert was issued: “Keep protected Ottawa.”
One police officer advised the Nationwide Submit the incident was not thought of an energetic shooter state of affairs.
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