Toronto - A driver deliberately plowed
his white Ryder rental van into a lunch-hour crowd in Toronto on
Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 along a roughly 1.6-km stretch of sidewalk thronged with
pedestrians, police said.
Although the attack had the hallmarks of recent deadly
vehicle assaults by Islamic State supporters in the United
States and Europe, federal officials said it did not represent a
larger threat to national security.
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders identified the suspect as
Alek Minassian, 25, who he said had not previously been known to
authorities. Police, who quickly arrested Minassian, do not know
his motives.
"The actions definitely looked deliberate," Saunders told a
late-night news conference close to the site of the incident in
the northern section of Canada's biggest city, noting the van
had been driven along sidewalks.
The brutal incident - which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
called a "tragic and senseless attack" - was one of the most
violent in recent Canadian history.
Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, standing next
to Saunders, said: "There would appear to be no national
security connections."
Global Television said Minassian would appear in a Toronto
court at 10am ET (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.
The attack shook the usually peaceful streets of Toronto, a
major tourist destination. The city, which has a population of
2.8 million, recorded 61 murders last year.
"This kind of tragic incident is not representative of how
we live and who we are," Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters.
Downtown Toronto's iconic CN Tower, which is normally lit up in
the evening, went dark on Monday evening.
The drama started just before 1.30pm when the driver
steered his vehicle into the crowds.
A man who gave his name as Ali told CNN he saw the van and
that the driver appeared to have been targeting people.
"This person was intentionally doing this, he was killing
everybody," the man said. "He kept going, he kept going. People
were getting hit, one after another."
The street was soon covered in blood, empty shoes and
bodies.
Video footage shot by a bystander showed police arresting a
suspect at the scene as he shouted: "Kill me" and pointed an
unidentified object at a policeman.
The officer replied, "No, get down."
When the suspect said, "I have a gun in my pocket," the
officer responded: "I don't care. Get down."
The tragedy struck as Canada was still recovering from the
shock of a highway crash in Saskatchewan earlier this month that
killed 16 people on a bus carrying a junior hockey team.
A police officer stands guard near the site where a van struck pedestrians in Toronto. Picture: Zou Zheng/Xinhua
'TRAGIC AND SENSELESS ATTACK'
"It was with great sadness that I heard about the tragic and
senseless attack that took place in Toronto this afternoon,"
Trudeau said in a statement. "We should all feel safe walking in
our cities and communities."
Last October eight people died in New York when a man
driving a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and
cyclists on a bike path.
The Islamic State militant group encourages its supporters
to use vehicles for attacks.
Last month, a former Canadian university student pleaded
guilty to killing six men praying in a Quebec City mosque in
January 2017.
In September, a Somali refugee was charged with attempted
murder over allegations he ran down four pedestrians with a car
and stabbed a police officer outside a sports stadium in
Edmonton, Alberta.
Trudeau was due to address the media at 0825 ET (1225 GMT)
on Tuesday, his office said.
In a statement, the White House press secretary said
Washington "pledges to provide any support Canada may need".
Monday's incident occurred about 30km from the
site where Toronto is hosting a meeting of Group of Seven
foreign ministers from Canada, the United States, Britain,
France, Germany, Italy and Japan, but had no noticeable effect
on that event's security.