MONTREAL: A number of folks have been killed after a driver plowed right into a crowd at a road competition 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 group gathered to have a good time Lapu Lapu Day.
The competition, 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 submit on social media platform X that he was “devastated” by the “horrific occasions”.
“I supply my deepest condolences to the family members of these killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian group, and to everybody in Vancouver,” he mentioned.
“We’re all mourning with you.”
Based on Vancouver police, “quite a few folks have been killed and a number of others are injured.”
“The driving force is in custody,” they mentioned on X.
Images printed by Canadian broadcaster CBC confirmed emergency crews on the scene in addition to giant crowds on the block social gathering earlier on Saturday.
Pageant safety guard Jen Idaba-Castaneto instructed native information website Vancouver Is Superior that she noticed “our bodies in all places”.
“You do not know who to assist, right here or there. It is so surprising,” 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 group throughout this extremely tough time”.
“Our ideas are with the victims and their households – and Vancouver’s Filipino group,” Jagmeet Singh, chief of the left-wing New Democratic Occasion mentioned on X.
