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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\u2019s interim police chief said, adding that there may be deaths among the \u201cdozens\u201d of people who were injured.<\/p>\n
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 \u201csubstantive contact with him over mental health issues.\u201d He declined to attribute any motive to the festival attack.<\/p>\n
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 \u201ccar-ramming attack,\u201d said that federal national security officials \u201cdo not believe that there is any active threat to Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cAt 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,\u201d the Vancouver police said in a post<\/a> on social media. The annual event celebrates Datu Lapu Lapu, a national hero in the Philippines.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of now, we can confirm nine people have died after a man drove through a crowd at last night\u2019s Lapu Lapu Festival,\u201d the police said in another post<\/a> on social media early Sunday. \u201cOur thoughts are with all those affected by this tragic incident.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The incident occurred less than 48 hours before federal elections<\/a> were set to take place in Canada. When asked by reporters whether the incident was related to the elections, Mr. Rai said, \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Underscoring the police\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n Alan Kane, a witness, told CBC Radio that just before the attack, the crowd on the street where it occurred was \u201cwall to wall\u201d and lined up for food trucks. He said that it appeared that the street was blocked to traffic only by plastic barriers.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looked like we literally in a war zone,\u201d Mr. Pangilinan told the CBC.<\/p>\n Other witnesses said the driver tried to run away before being subdued by bystanders.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> and deemed the killings to be an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 2018, a man in Toronto used a rented van to run down and kill 11 pedestrians<\/a>, injuring another 15. Most of the victims were women.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cLast night, families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter,\u201d Mr. Carney told reporters in Hamilton, Ontario. \u201cThose families are living every family\u2019s nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing Filipino Canadians, he added: \u201cI join all Canadians in mourning with you. I know Canadians are united with you.\u201d <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n Vancouver\u2019s mayor, Ken Sim, said<\/a> he was \u201cshocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident.\u201d<\/p>\n Vancouver prides itself on being a diverse, multicultural city, with more than half of its residents<\/a> identifying themselves as a \u201cvisible minority,\u201d according to 2021 census.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> was established as an annual event in 2023.<\/p>\n President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines said in a statement on Sunday that he was \u201ccompletely shattered to hear about the terrible incident\u201d in Vancouver, and he expressed his \u201cdeepest sympathies\u201d to the families of the victims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n