Van attack unlikely to be terrorism
CANADA: A 25-year-old man in a rented van ploughed down a Toronto sidewalk crowded with lunchtime strollers yesterday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in what appeared to witnesses and the city’s police chief to be a deliberate attack.
The driver was quickly arrested in a tense but brief confrontation with police a few blocks away.
Witnesses and the police chief said the driver, identified by authorities as Alek Minassian, was moving fast and appeared to intentionally jump a kerb in the North York neighbourhood as people filled the sidewalks on an unseasonably warm afternoon. He continued for nearly 2km, knocking over a fire hydrant and leaving bodies strewn in his wake.
Officials would not comment on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism, a thought that occurred to many following a series of attacks involving trucks and pedestrians in Europe and the presence in Toronto this week of cabinet ministers from the G7 nations.
Still, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said he did not think it was an accident.
‘‘The incident definitely looked deliberate,’’ Saunders said at a news conference as he announced that the death toll had risen to 10. He said 15 others had been hospitalised.
Saunders said Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, had not been known to police previously.
Asked if there was any evidence of a connection to international terrorism, he said only: ‘‘Based on what we have, there’s nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time.’’
A senior national government official said authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it unlikely that terrorism was the motive.
Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still under way, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.
The incident occurred as cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were gathered in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the runup to the G7 meeting near Quebec City in June. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the incident a ‘‘horrific attack’’ and said the G7 foreign ministers extended their condolences.
The driver was heading south on busy Yonge St when the van jumped on to the sidewalk.
Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcaster CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd at more than 50kmh.
‘‘He just went on the sidewalk,’’ a distraught Shaker said. ‘‘Anybody in his way he would hit.’’
Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not seem to make any effort to stop. ‘‘If it was an accident, he would have stopped.’’
Video broadcast on several Canadian outlets showed police arresting the driver, dressed in dark clothes, after officers surrounded him and his rented Ryder van several blocks from where the incident occurred. He appeared to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his hand just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sympathies to those involved.
‘‘We should all feel safe walking in our cities and communities,’’ he said. ‘‘We are monitoring this situation closely, and will continue working with our law enforcement partners around the country to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians.’’ – AP