A driver plowed into a bunch of partygoers attending a Filipino avenue competition within the Canadian metropolis of Vancouver on Saturday night, killing “quite a lot of folks,” in accordance with the native authorities.
Vancouver Police stated they have been investigating a “mass casualty incident” at a Lapu Lapu Day Competition after “a number of folks have been killed and a number of others injured.” The police stated they’d taken the motive force, a 30-year-old Vancouver man.
“At roughly 8:14 p.m. on April 26, a person drove into a big crowd of individuals attending the Lapu Lapu Day Competition close to East forty third Avenue and Fraser Road,” the Vancouver Police stated in a put up on social media. The competition celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, a nationwide hero in The Philippines.
Vancouver Police stated in an e mail Sunday that investigators had dominated out terrorism as a motive, however didn’t provide additional particulars.
In a information convention, Steve Rai, the interim police chief, didn’t specify the variety of folks killed and injured, saying solely that there have been quite a lot of casualties. A spokeswoman for the Vancouver Normal Hospital stated they’d obtained a number of sufferers who have been injured on the competition.
Mr. Rai didn’t deal with a potential motive for the incident, however stated the motive force had been recognized to the police. Members of the gang had subdued the person earlier than the police bought to the scene, the police stated.
The deadly incident occurred lower than 48 hours earlier than federal elections are set to happen in Canada. When requested by reporters whether or not the incident was associated to the election, Mr. Rai stated: “I don’t know something about that.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada stated in a social media put up that he was “devastated to listen to in regards to the horrific occasions on the Lapu Lapu competition in Vancouver earlier this night.”
“I provide my deepest condolences to the family members of these killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian group, and to everybody in Vancouver,” he stated. “We’re all mourning with you.”
Vancouver’s mayor, Ken Sim, stated he was “shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident.”
Vancouver prides itself on being a various, multicultural metropolis, with greater than half of its residents figuring out themselves as a “seen minority,” in accordance with 2021 census knowledge.
Lapu-Lapu Day is an annual celebration within the Philippines, marking the reminiscence of Datu Lapu-Lapu, who stood up towards Spanish colonization. The competition was formally arrange in Vancouver in 2023.
