TORONTO — Two males died Monday after a pickup truck plowed into pedestrians beside a highway within the japanese Quebec city of Amqui, though a senior Canadian official quickly dominated out a terrorism assault or a nationwide safety incident.
A provincial police spokeswoman mentioned 9 different folks have been injured, together with two whose accidents are thought-about critical.
Sgt. Hélène St-Pierre mentioned the 38-year-old driver, a neighborhood resident, turned himself in to police and was arrested beneath suspicion of committing a deadly hit and run.
A senior authorities official acquainted with the matter mentioned the incident was not terrorism or nationwide safety associated. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as they weren’t licensed to talk publicly on the matter.
Authorities had not talked about any motive.
St-Pierre mentioned the 2 folks killed have been each males, one in his 60s and the opposite in his 70s. Among the many injured, two suffered critical accidents and the opposite seven have been being evaluated, she mentioned.
St-Pierre mentioned investigators and accident reconstruction consultants have been working to ascertain the circumstances of the crash.
“Every thing signifies it was an remoted incident, and that there isn’t a extra hazard within the space, and there is only one suspect,” she mentioned.
The incident occurred simply after 3 p.m. alongside St-Benoit Boulevard in Amqui, a city about 350 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of Quebec Metropolis.
The regional well being board confirmed {that a} “code orange” had been declared on the Amqui hospital, which typically signifies a state of affairs with a excessive variety of casualties.
Alain Gilbert, a truck driver, mentioned he was driving into Amqui when he noticed a number of ambulances tending to about 4 or probably 5 folks unfold over a distance of about 500 meters (yards).
He noticed a police officer performing CPR on one individual mendacity on the bottom. He mentioned there didn’t seem like any youngsters within the group.
Final month in Laval, Quebec, police mentioned a person driving a metropolis bus intentionally smashed right into a daycare middle, killing two youngsters.
In 2021, a person used a pickup to kill 4 members of an immigrant household in London, Ontario, in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned was a hate crime directed at Muslims.
In 2018, a person in a van rampaged by pedestrians in Toronto, killing 10 folks. Alek Minassian was discovered responsible of 10 counts of first-degree homicide and 16 counts of tried homicide. Minassian, 28, instructed police he belonged to a web based group of sexually annoyed males, a few of whom have plotted assaults on individuals who have intercourse.