Rental van slams into Toronto pedestrians
At least 9 killed and 16 injured: “Anybody in his way he would hit”
A white van jumped a curb and slammed into pedestrians Monday on a crowded Toronto street, killing at least nine people, injuring 16 and leaving witnesses stunned by the carnage.
The driver was arrested near the scene, Toronto police said. Details were sketchy, and a motive for the incident at 1:30 p.m. was uncertain. Canada’s minister of public safety, Ralph Goodale, said it was too soon to say whether the crash was a case of international terrorism, and the nation did not change its terrorism alert level.
A witness, Phil Zullo, told the Canadian Press that he saw police arresting a man who had been driving a Ryder rental truck and saw people “strewn all over the road” along a busy section of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue.
“I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers,” Zullo said. “It was awful. Brutal.”
Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van, told Canadian broadcast outlet CP24 that the driver appeared to move deliberately through the crowd at more than 30 mph. “He just went on the sidewalk,” Shaker said. “He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the sidewalk. Anybody in his way he would hit.”
Ham Yu-Jin told The Toronto Star, “I was in my car, and I saw a white van going on the sidewalk. ... I heard a big bang, and the van hit a bus shelter and hit people. I turned my car on and chased the van. I’m so lucky, I could have been hit.”
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center treated seven people for injuries.
“Sunnybrook’s Emergency Department has been locked down as an added precaution, and access to the ... campus is being controlled,” the hospital said in a statement.
Police did not immediately identify the driver.