Driver kills nine during street festival in Canada

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A man drove a vehicle into a crowd at a Filipino heritage festival in the Canadian city of Vancouver, killing at least nine people and injuring an unknown number of others, police said Sunday.

The vehicle entered the street at 8:14 p.m. on Saturday and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival, the Vancouver Police Department said in a social media post.

Several other people were injured, but the exact number of casualties wasn’t immediately available. Video of the aftermath shows the dead and injured along a narrow street in South Vancouver lined by food trucks. The front of the driver’s SUV was smashed in.

A 30-year-old Vancouver man was arrested at the scene and the department’s Major Crime Section is overseeing the investigation, police said.

“At this time, we are confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism,” the police department posted early Sunday.

Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai told a news conference that the man was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.

Video circulating on social media shows a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain-link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.

“I’m sorry,” the man says, holding his hand to his head.

Rai declined to comment on the video, but said the person in custody was a “lone male” who was “known to police in certain circumstances.”

Carayn Nulada said that she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the street and used her body to shield them from the SUV. She said that her daughter suffered a narrow escape.

“The car hit her arm and she fell down, but she got up, looking for us, because she is scared,” said Nulada, who described children screaming, and pale-faced victims lying on the ground or wedged under vehicles.

“I saw people running and my daughter was shaking.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney and other political leaders on the final day of the election campaign posted messages expressing shock at the violence, condolences for victims and support for the community celebrating its heritage.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver. We are all mourning with you,” Carney wrote.

Carney delayed his campaign events.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a statement expressing sympathy with the victims and their families.