Ten dead, 15 injured as van ploughs into Toronto pedestrians
Ten people have died with 15 injured after a van ploughed into pedestrians in an attack that won’t impact “national security”.
UPDATED: A rented van ploughed down a crowded Toronto sidewalk Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 before the driver fled and was quickly arrested in a confrontation with police, Canadian authorities said. Witnesses said the driver was moving fast and appeared to be acting deliberately, but police officials would not comment on the cause or any possible motive.
One of the 10 people killed in Monday’s van attack on a busy Toronto street has been identified as Anne-Marie D’Amico, CBC News reported.
D’Amico was reportedly an employee at Invesco, a US-based investment management firm. Her next of kin have been notified. Invesco’s Canadian headquarters are on Yonge Street, between Sheppard and Finch Avenues, close to the nearly one-kilometre stretch of Yonge Street where pedestrians were struck with the white rental van.
Speaking at a news conference, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders raised the initial death toll of nine to 10, saying another victim had died at a hospital. He said 15 others were hospitalised.
Saunders identified the man detained after the incident as Alek Minassian, 25, a resident of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill. He said the suspect had not been known to police previously.
Asked if there was any evidence of a connection to international terrorism, the chief said only, “Based on what we have there’s nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time.” But a senior national government official said earlier that authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it unlikely terrorism was the motive. The official agreed to reveal that information only if not quoted by name.
Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.
Witnesses have described the horrific scenes as a van ploughed into pedestrians in Toronto killing nine people. #Toronto #7News pic.twitter.com/QDI5G52qz1
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) April 23, 2018
“I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation,” Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.
The incident occurred as Cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were gathered in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the run-up to the G7 meeting near Quebec City in June.
Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale said that it was too soon to say whether the crash was a case of international terrorism and that the government had not raised its terrorism alert.
The driver was heading south on busy Yonge Street around 1:30pm and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van jumped onto the sidewalk.
The incident occurred as Cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were gathered in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the run-up to the G7 meeting near Quebec City in June.
Minassian is in custody after leaving a trail of destruction stretching nearly 2km, officials said.
After driving along the sidewalk for up to a kilometre at speeds of up to 100kmkm/h, the driver jumped out of the van and appeared to wave an object at police before being arrested.
Eyewitness Chelsea Luelo told CNN she thought the driver was hitting people intentionally.
“It looked like he was going straight, halfway through the sidewalk,” Ms Luelo said.
Video of arrest of Toronto driver who plowed into pedestrians at Yonge/Finch
— Peg Staruch (@PegStaruch) April 23, 2018
Kudos to that brave officer. https://t.co/4fdM8xIHJ7
A Global News journalist, Jeremy Cohn, described the scene as “bodies all over Yonge St.,” adding “some have been pronounced dead on scene.”
An eyewitness told CNN: “He was just hitting people one by one, he hit every single person on the sidewalk, holy God I never seen anything like this in my life ... you see it in a war zone..
“He is going 60 to 70 kms on the sidewalk ... this person was intentional, doing this he was killing everybody ... this is terrorism stuff here.”
Yonge and Finch suspect goes at police officer, van in background @CP24 @CityNews @globalnewsto @CBCToronto @CityNews @CTVToronto pic.twitter.com/ZqhTcjndBc
— Waqas (@waqas_mahmud) April 23, 2018
Another witness Kash Alavi, said the van left a trail of devastation behind it.
“We could see bodies on the ground people trying to revive them, give them CPR,” he said. “The crowd was trying to bring them back to life, their bodies were full of blood. Their body parts were twisted ... I saw dead (people) put into body bags.”
Phil Zullo told the Toronto Sun he was driving north on Yonge Street when he said he observed police chasing a vehicle.
“I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers,” Mr Zullo said. “It was awful. Brutal. Just people everywhere. People — shoes and shirts and ball caps on the floor.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was just learning about the incident.
“Our hearts go out to anyone affected. We’re obviously going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours,” he said.
“We’re still gathering information and as soon as we can, we’ll share more information with Canadians.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory said: “My thoughts are with those affected by this incident and the frontline responders who are working to help those injured.”
Stephen Powell, district chief for Toronto Fire, said the van that struck pedestrians in Toronto today “covered between a half-mile and a mile.”
Earlier, the Toronto Fire Service tweeted about the crash, calling it “horrific.”
Canada has only rarely been the scene of terror attacks.
In October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, injuring four people.
And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.
In March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked two soldiers at a military recruitment centre in Toronto.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
With AP, AFP
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