The suspect in a Canadian car-ramming attack that left 11 dead at a Filipino street party acted deliberately and had a history of mental health problems, police said Sunday, warning the toll could rise.
No motive has been confirmed for the Saturday evening attack in the western city of Vancouver, though terrorism was ruled out by police.
The ramming shocked the country a day before a general election dominated by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products and his threat to annex his northern neighbor, long a key ally and trading partner.
Police chief Steve Rai raised the death toll from nine and said the 30-year-old suspect driving a black Audi SUV had a “significant history” of interaction with police and mental health care professionals.
The Filipino community had gathered in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood when festivalgoers were hit by the SUV.
The celebration called the Lapu Lapu Festival commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a brief address to the nation, teared up as he addressed the tragedy.
“Last night families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a son, or a daughter,” he said. “Those families are living every family’s nightmare.”
An AFP reporter saw police officers at the scene Saturday evening, with parts of the festival venue cordoned off.
Footage posted online and verified by AFP shows the vehicle with a damaged hood parked on a street littered with debris, meters from first aid crews tending to people lying on the ground.
Eyewitness Dale Selipe told the Vancouver Sun that she saw injured children on the street after the vehicle rammed into the crowd.
“There was a lady with her eyes staring up, one of her legs was already broken. One person was holding her hand trying to comfort her,” Selipe told the newspaper.
– ‘Bodies everywhere’ –
Festival security guard Jen Idaba-Castaneto told a local news site that she saw bodies everywhere.
“You don’t know who to help, here or there,” she said.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said in a tweet “I am shocked by the horrific news emerging from Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day Festival tonight.”
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos said in a statement he was “completely shattered to hear about the terrible incident.”
In the capital Ottawa, Julie Dunbar, a semi-retiree out for a morning run, recalled an attack in 2018 in Toronto in which a man in a van killed 11 people.
“So it has occurred before, but I fear for the society that we live in, that these things can happen,” said Dunbar, 72.
Saturday’s event featured a parade, a film screening, dancing and a concert, with two members of the Black Eyed Peas featured on the lineup published by the organizers.
Lapu Lapu Day is celebrated in the Philippines in remembrance of Indigenous chief Lapulapu, who led his men to defeat Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in battle in 1521.
“This is the darkest day in our city’s history,” Vancouver police said in a statement.
Britain’s King Charles III, Canada’s head of state, said on Sunday he was “profoundly saddened” by the deaths.
Canadians go to the polls Monday after an election race where candidates have wooed voters on issues including rising living costs and standing up to Trump.
Carney is favored to win after assuring voters he can stand up to Washington’s barrage of sweeping tariffs and threats of annexation.