Several people have been killed after a driver rammed into a crowd during a street festival in Vancouver.
Police confirmed multiple fatalities and several injuries following the incident at the Lapu Lapu Festival on Fraser Street and 41st Avenue on Saturday evening.
The driver has been arrested and taken into custody.
Footage from the scene shows a damaged black SUV positioned near a row of food trucks.
Paramedics are at the scene
REUTERS
Lapu Lapu Day is among the Philippines’ most significant annual celebrations.
There were reportedly thousands of people in the area.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party and a candidate for Prime Minister in Monday’s election, had addressed the crowd at the Filipino festival earlier in the day.
Singh later said he was “horrified to learn” that “innocent people” had lost their lives.
MORE LIKE THIS:
Conservative leader and main opposition candidate Pierre Poilievre said he was “shocked by the horrific news emerging from Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day Festival tonight.”
He added: “My thoughts are with the Filipino community and all the victims targeted by this senseless attack.”
David Eby, the Premier of British Columbia, also expressed his condolences, saying he was “shocked and heartbroken to hear of the lives lost”.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X: “I am devastated to hear about the horrific events at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver earlier this evening.”
Police are at the scene
REUTERS
Speaking to CTV News, one witness claimed he saw a black vehicle driving erratically in the area just before the incident occurred.
Yoseb Vardeh, who runs the food truck Bao Buns, told Postmedia: “I didn’t get to see the driver, all I heard was an engine rev.”
“I got outside my food truck, I looked down the road and there’s just bodies everywhere,” he added.
“He went through the whole block, he went straight down the middle.”
