A driver plowed into a group of partygoers attending a Filipino street festival on Saturday evening in Vancouver, British Columbia, killing at least 11 people, the city’s interim police chief said, adding that there may be deaths among the “dozens” of people who were injured.
The interim chief, Steve Rai, said on Sunday that a 30-year-old man from Vancouver was in custody, and that the police had previously had “substantive contact with him over mental health issues.” He declined to attribute any motive to the festival attack.
Investigators had ruled out terrorism as a motive, Vancouver police said in an email early Sunday, but they did not offer further details. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who described the incident as a “car-ramming attack,” said that federal national security officials “do not believe that there is any active threat to Canadians.”
Photographs published by news agencies showed what appeared to be a black SUV with significant damage to the front of the vehicle, and its airbags deployed.
“At approximately 8:14 p.m. on April 26, a man drove into a large crowd of people attending the Lapu Lapu Day Festival near East 43rd Avenue and Fraser Street,” the Vancouver police said in a post on social media. The annual event celebrates Datu Lapu Lapu, a national hero in the Philippines.
“As of now, we can confirm nine people have died after a man drove through a crowd at last night’s Lapu Lapu Festival,” the police said in another post on social media early Sunday. “Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragic incident.”
The incident occurred less than 48 hours before federal elections were set to take place in Canada. When asked by reporters whether the incident was related to the elections, Mr. Rai said, “I don’t know anything about that.”
Underscoring the police’s initial assessment that the attack was an isolated event, the police will allow a 10-kilometer run that drew more than 45,000 entrants last year to go ahead on Sunday.
The incident occurred just as Apl.de.ap, a Filipino American rapper and a founding member of the Black Eyed Peas, had finished a concert performance at the festival on the grounds of a high school.
Alan Kane, a witness, told CBC Radio that just before the attack, the crowd on the street where it occurred was “wall to wall” and lined up for food trucks. He said that it appeared that the street was blocked to traffic only by plastic barriers.
Several witnesses told Canadian news outlets that those barriers had been pulled back before the incident. Kris Pangilinan, who was selling clothing at a booth, said that some cars and trucks had been allowed into the crowded street to allow vendors to pack up their stands. The Audi SUV, he said, had initially moved cautiously into the crowd before rapidly accelerating, knocking down victims.
“It looked like we literally in a war zone,” Mr. Pangilinan told the CBC.
Other witnesses said the driver tried to run away before being subdued by bystanders.
This was the first mass killing involving a vehicle in Canada since 2021, when a far-right extremist drove a pickup truck into five members of a Muslim family in London, Ontario, killing four of them. A judge ruled that the man was motivated by white supremacist ideology and deemed the killings to be an act of terrorism.
In 2018, a man in Toronto used a rented van to run down and kill 11 pedestrians, injuring another 15. Most of the victims were women.
In recent years, police forces in Canada have regularly blocked roads leading to venues hosting large crowds with snowplows or gravel-filled dump trucks, a measure that did not appear to have been taken in Vancouver.
“Last night, families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter,” Mr. Carney told reporters in Hamilton, Ontario. “Those families are living every family’s nightmare.”
Addressing Filipino Canadians, he added: “I join all Canadians in mourning with you. I know Canadians are united with you.”
Mr. Carney canceled the largest of his events scheduled for the final day of campaigning on Sunday, and it was unclear if he would follow a plan to conclude his campaign in the evening in Vancouver.
Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party and a member of Parliament from British Columbia, canceled all of his final campaign events except one. Mr. Singh had left the festival not long before the attack.
Vancouver’s mayor, Ken Sim, said he was “shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident.”
Vancouver prides itself on being a diverse, multicultural city, with more than half of its residents identifying themselves as a “visible minority,” according to 2021 census.
Lapu Lapu Day is an annual celebration in the Philippines, marking the memory of Datu Lapu Lapu, who stood up against Spanish colonization. In Vancouver, the festival was established as an annual event in 2023.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines said in a statement on Sunday that he was “completely shattered to hear about the terrible incident” in Vancouver, and he expressed his “deepest sympathies” to the families of the victims.
Ali Watkins covers international news and is based in London.
Jin Yu Young reports on South Korea, the Asia Pacific region and global breaking news from Seoul.
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times based in Ottawa. He covers politics, culture and the people of Canada and has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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