Soldier killed as gunmen go on rampage in Ottawa

A CANADIAN soldier who was shot as he stood guard at a war memorial in the country’s capital has died of his injuries, police said.

Ottawa police spokesman Chuck Benoit said a suspected gunman, identified last night as MichaelZehaf-Bibeau, is also dead.

Mr Benoit said authorities believe three gunmen were involved in three shooting incidents, all within less than a mile of each other in central Ottawa.

A search was under way for the other two suspects.

One gunman shot the soldier, before entering the parliament building, where numerous shots rang out, police and witnesses said. People fled the building by scrambling down scaffolding erected for renovations, witnesses told the Canadian Press news agency. Others were in lockdown.

The attack came two days after a recent convert to Islam killed one Canadian soldier and injured another in a hit-and-run before being shot to death by police.

The killer had been on the radar of federal investigators, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey.

Video taken by a reporter for the Globe and Mail yesterday showed police officers walking slowly through parliament toward the entrance with guns drawn.

The sound of a gunshot rang out, followed by the sounds of multiple shots.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was safe and had left Parliament Hill. Cabinet minister Tony Clement tweeted that at least 30 shots were heard inside parliament, where Conservative and Liberal MPs were holding their weekly caucus meetings.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned people in central Ottawa to stay away from windows and rooftops.

Tony Zobl, 35, said he witnessed the soldier being gunned down from his fourthfloor window directly above the National War Memorial, dedicated to those who died in the First World War.

“I looked out the window and saw a shooter, a man dressed all in black with a kerchief over his nose and mouth and something over his head as well, holding a rifle and shooting an honour guard in front of the cenotaph point-blank, twice,” Mr Zobl told the Canadian Press news agency.

Ottawa Hospital said it had received three victims from the shootings, two of whom were in a stable condition.

Picture: AP. Police converge on Parliament Hill in the Canadian capital Ottawa after gunmen entered the building.

Pictures: AP. Paramedics and police wheel away a shooting victim at the National War Memorial, left, while Royal Canadian Mountain Police intervention team members clear the area at the entrance to Parliament Hill.