A man in a van drove into a crowd of pedestrians at high speed in Canada’s largest city, killing at least nine people and wounding 16 others.
Meaghan Gray, police spokeswoman in Toronto, said the vehicle jumped the curb on Monday at about 1pm (17:00GMT), but the reason was not yet clear.
“At this point, it’s too early to tell what if any motive there was,” said Gray.
Deputy Police Chief Peter Yuen later told reporters that nine people were killed and 16 injured.
The white van fled the scene but was found not far away and the driver was arrested by police. The vehicle was marked as belonging to the rental company Ryder.
Witnesses said it was moving at high speed at the time of the incident.
“He started going down on the sidewalk and crumbling down people one by one … every single thing that got in his way,” witness Alex Shaker told CTV News Channel.
Passer-by Carol Roberts said there was “a lot of people lying lifeless on the ground”.
“It was just so many bodies,” CTV quoted her as saying.
The United States and Europe have seen a string of deadly attacks in which vehicles were used to target pedestrians, including an October 31 attack in New York City that killed eight people.
Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters police were still investigating the cause of the incident.
AL Jazeera
