Two people were killed and two others were injured in British Columbia on Wednesday when a driver lost control of a pickup truck that crashed into pedestrians outside a shopping mall on tribal lands, the authorities said.
The police in Delta, a city about 20 miles south of Vancouver near the lands of the Tsawwassen First Nation, classified the crash as an accident and said the driver appeared to have experienced a medical episode. The driver’s condition was not immediately known.
The crash occurred around 10:25 a.m. Pacific time in the parking lot of Tsawwassen Mills, a shopping center where hundreds of people had gathered for a march and other ceremonies observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a federal holiday established in 2021 to recognize the trauma of Indigenous children who were taken from their families and forced to live in residential schools.
The event was one of many that were being held across Canada on Wednesday.
In a statement released on social media, the Delta Police Department said there was “no ongoing risk to public safety.”
The conditions of the two injured pedestrians at the shopping center were not immediately available from the police, who said that emergency medical workers treated them at the scene and took them to a hospital.
In a social media post on Wednesday, David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, offered his condolences.
“On a day already set aside for solemn reflection, a tragedy during the Tsawwassen First Nation Truth and Reconciliation event has shocked and saddened us all,” Mr. Eby said.
Dylan Kruger, a member of the City Council in Delta, said in a phone interview on Wednesday that he was at the mall for the observance when he saw ambulances and medical helicopters respond to the crash.
He said that the two people who died were elders of the Tsawwassen First Nation, which Mr. Kruger estimated has about 400 members.
“So obviously, that’s going to be very devastating for that small and tightknit community,” he said.
Tribal officials did not immediately respond to questions on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Tsawwassen First Nation asked for privacy and urged people to avoid the area.
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