Nine people died when a driver ran over a crowd during a street festival in Vancouver, in western Canada, a few hours before the national elections, the city police said Sunday.
The incident occurred on Saturday, shortly after 20h00 (03h00 GMT on Sunday), when members of the Philippine community congregated to celebrate Lapu Lapu day, authorities said.
The festival commemorates an anti -colonial leader Filipino of the 16th century and took place over the weekend before Canadian elections.
“We can confirm that nine people have died after a man hit a crowd at the Lapu Lapu festival last night,” said the police on Sunday.
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The armed body had previously declared that a 30 -year -old man was arrested and a spokesman told journalists that the driver was a known “suspect” of the agents.
Police also ruled out for now that the outrage has been a terrorist act.
Canadian Prime Minister, Liberal Mark Carney, wrote on social networks that he was “devastated” by the “horrible events.”
“I offer my deepest condolences to the loved ones of the dead and wounded, to the Philippine-Canadian community and all in Vancouver,” he said. “We are all mourning with you,” he added.
Images published on the Internet and verified by the AFP show a black SUV with the damaged hood on a street full of rubble, next to lifeguards attending people on the ground.
Dale Selipe, face -to -face witness, told Vancouver Sun that he saw children injured in the street after the vehicle rammed the crowd.
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“There was a lady with her eyes looking up, one of her legs was already broken. A person took her hand trying to comfort her,” he described.
“Bodies everywhere”
Photos published by the Canadian CBC chain showed emergency teams at the scene, and great crowds at the party.
The festival’s security agent, Jen Idaba-Coasto, described the local news portal ‘Vancouver is awesome’ that he saw “bodies everywhere.”
“You don’t know who to help, if there or there. It’s so shocking,” he said.
The Filipino consulate in Vancouver expressed in a statement on Facebook “his deep concern and condolences to the victims of the horrible incident.”
Saturday’s event included a parade, the projection of a film, dances and a concert, with two members of the Black Eyed Peas group on the festival poster.
Lapu Lapu’s day is celebrated in the Philippines in memory of the Lapulapu indigenous boss, who directed his men to defeat the Portuguese explorer Fernando de Magallanes in 1521.
The outrage occurs a year after Canadian Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life imprisonment for running over a Muslim family in the street in Ontario in 2021.
This sentence was the first in Canada to establish a link between white supremacy and terrorism in a murder case.
The Canadians go to the polls on Monday after a frantic electoral career in which candidates have courted voters with issues such as the increase in the cost of life and the fight against the tariffs of the president of the United States, Donald Trump.
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Carney is a favorite to win the elections after assuring the voters that she can deal with the avalanche of Washington tariffs.
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