Several people were killed and many injured when a car drove into a crowd during a Filipino street festival in Canada‘s Vancouver on Saturday, police said.
The incident occurred around 8 pm (local time) as members of the Filipino community gathered in large numbers to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day in the city’s Sunset on Fraser neighbourhood.
The driver has been arrested, police said.
“A number of people have been killed and multiple others are injured after a driver drove into a crowd at a street festival at E. 41st Avenue and Fraser shortly after 8 p.m. tonight. The driver is in custody. We will provide more information as the investigation unfolds,” Vancouver Police told the media.
The police are yet to confirm if the incident was a car attack or an accident.
Eyewitnesses told local media outlets that a black SUV drove through the street festival at high speed, hitting multiple people.
They said the driver of the car appeared to be a young Asian man, and appeared to be mentally challenged.
Several videos of the horrific incident have surfaced on social media, showing bodies lying on the street after the car attack, as emergency crews rushed for rescue operations.
The Vancouver Sun said thousands of people had been in the area.
“I didn’t get to see the driver, all I heard was an engine rev,” Yoseb Vardeh, co-owner of food truck Bao Buns, said in an interview with Postmedia.
“I got outside my food truck, I looked down the road and there’s just bodies everywhere,” said Vardeh, as his voice broke. “He went through the whole block, he went straight down the middle.”
Politicians Express Shock
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X: “I am devastated to hear about the horrific events at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver earlier this evening.”
Vancouver’s Mayor Ken Sim and British Columbia Premier David Eby posted similar comments on X.
One witness told CTV News he saw a black vehicle driving erratically in the area of the festival just before the crowd was struck.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, was among the attendees at the event, but left minutes before the vehicle arrived, CTV news said.
“This is so horrific, I don’t even know what to say,” CTV quoted Singh as saying. “I was just there, and I just imagine the faces of the kids that I saw smiling and dancing.”
Vancouver’s Mayor Ken Sim reportedly said: “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at today’s Lapu Lapu Day event.”
“Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time,” he added.
New Democratic MP Don Davies posted on X about the ‘horrendous attack’, saying he was ‘praying for all the victims and their families’.
“Just heard the tragic news of the horrendous attack at the Lapu Lapu festival. I am praying for all the victims and their families,” he said.
Lapu Lapu Festival
This is a street festival that commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader, Datu Lapu-Lapu, from the 16th century.
Lapu-Lapu was the Philippines’ first national hero, who led the victory against Spanish colonists in the 1521 Battle of Mactan.
(With inputs from Reuters and IBNS)
