Greater than a dozen victims lay strewn on a road the place a driver plowed right into a crowd at a competition in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday night time, killing 9 individuals and wounding a number of others.
In graphic movies of the incident’s aftermath posted on social media and verified by NBC Information, first responders and emergency autos on the scene had been seen tending to victims as onlookers appeared distressed, crying and in shock.
What seemed to be the car, a crumpled black SUV, was seen stopped in the course of the road after crashing into meals vans that flanked either side of a road that had been pedestrianized for what had been, simply moments earlier than, a joyous celebration of Filipino tradition.
The ruins of broken meals vans additionally appeared scattered throughout the realm.
In accordance with Vancouver police, the group, which had gathered for the annual Lapu-Lapu Day block occasion, captured the motive force and turned him over to police, who are actually holding him in custody.
The assault occurred on East forty first Avenue and Fraser Road shortly after 8:14 p.m. native time, the Vancouver Police Division mentioned in a put up on X.
9 individuals died within the incident, police mentioned in a separate put up on X Sunday, including: “Our ideas are with all these affected by this tragic incident.”
Police didn’t instantly present a doable motive, however have recognized the suspect as a 30-year-old man from Vancouver, later including that they’re “assured that this incident was not an act of terrorism.”
Steve Rai, Vancouver’s interim police chief, advised reporters at a midnight press convention on the scene of the crash that “a lone suspect, topic male, with one car drove by a crowded neighborhood occasion occurring close to right here.”
“Going ahead, your entire investigative part — sections of the Vancouver Police Division, with assist of different areas — can be conducting a full investigation of what occurred right here tonight,” Rai mentioned.
Yoseb Vardeh, the co-owner of a meals truck that was stationed on the Lapu-Lapu Day competition, advised the Vancouver Solar, a Canadian information outlet, that he heard an engine revving earlier than a rushing truck drove straight down the center of a pedestrian-only space.
“I acquired outdoors my meals truck, I appeared down the street and there’s simply our bodies in all places,” Vardeh mentioned.
He added that the police acted shortly to cordon off the realm and arrest the person. “That is one thing that occurs within the States, not right here,” he mentioned.
Deana Lancaster, a spokesperson for Vancouver Common Hospital, the area’s high trauma facility, mentioned it was receiving a number of sufferers from the incident, which she understood to be the Lapu-Lapu Day occasion.
“I’m shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at at this time’s Lapu Lapu Day occasion,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim mentioned, including that extra info can be forthcoming as quickly as it’s out there.
“Our ideas are with all these affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino neighborhood throughout this extremely troublesome time,” Sim mentioned.
British Columbia Premier David Eby mentioned his group was involved with Vancouver officers and would supply any wanted assist.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney supplied condolences on X and mentioned officers had been monitoring the scenario.
“I provide my deepest condolences to the family members of these killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian neighborhood, and to everybody in Vancouver. We’re all mourning with you,” he mentioned.
Jagmeet Singh, the chief of Canada’s New Democrat Celebration, mentioned on X that he was “horrified.”
“As we wait to be taught extra, our ideas are with the victims and their households — and Vancouver’s Filipino neighborhood, who had been coming collectively at this time to have a good time resilience,” he mentioned.
In 2023, the province of British Columbia formally declared April 27 to be Lapu-Lapu Day, commemorating a battle on the island of Mactan, in what’s now the Philippines, on April 27, 1521. Lapu-Lapu was an Indigenous chief who’s broadly credited, and celebrated, within the Philippines for killing Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who landed in Mactan whereas helming a Spanish expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
The islands went on to fall beneath Spanish colonial rule for practically 400 years, and Lapu-Lapu is hailed within the Philippines and the worldwide Filipino diaspora as an emblem of resistance to colonialism.
There are practically 1 million Filipino immigrants and other people of Filipino descent in Canada, based on the 2021 census.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. Extra from NBC Information:
Astha Rajvanshi, Alex Lo and Insiya Gandhi contributed.
