At least 11 people were killed — the youngest just five years old — in an attack on a festival after a madman ploughed an SUV into partying crowds at a Filipino street fair in Canada over the weekend, police announced on Sunday.
Chaos broke out around 8 p.m. Saturday just as Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day block party was ending, and organizers began taking down barriers blocking off a street packed with hundreds of people.
The suspect – a 30-year-old male – took the opening and sped down the street, ploughing through the crowds and sending bodies flying in what one witness likened to a bowling ball hurled down an alley.
“[He] just slammed the pedal down and rammed into hundreds of people. It was like seeing a bowling ball hit — all the bowling pins and all the pins flying up in the air,” festivalgoer Kris Pangilinan told CBC.
The names of the victims haven’t been released yet – and some still “have not yet been identified,” Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai told reporters Sunday.
Their ages range from five to 65, according to police.
In addition to the fatalities – which began climbing overnight into Sunday afternoon – dozens of people were injured, some seriously, and officials cautioned that the death toll might increase.
“The number of dead could rise in the coming days or weeks,” Rai said, adding that both men, women and “young people” had been killed.
“This is the darkest day in our city’s history,” he said.
The attack does not seem to be terror-related, Rai added, explaining that the suspect was “known” to police and because of a “history” of mental health-related incident – but that no political or religious ideations had ever been reported.
That history included a “significant” number of interactions with police over mental health episodes, along with a history of interactions with “health-care professionals related to mental health,” Rai said.
But there had been no interaction with the suspect “immediately leading up to this event,” police said.
The suspect was apprehended after his car came to a halt in the middle of the street with its front end obliterated and a trail of bodies lying in its wake.
Footage circulating on social media shows a man being held up against a fence by police as crowds berate him – and saying “I’m sorry” as he covers his face.
Other clips captured people screaming in fear and agony, rushing from body to body to check for life, and hastily performing CPR on bloodied victims.
He is a resident of Vancouver, Rai said, and the SUV used in the attack belonged to “somebody associated to that family.”
Just minutes before the attack, Black Eyed Peas singer apl.de.ap had just finished the festival’s headline performance and left the stage – and later said the “shock and heaviness” of the incident was “hard to describe.”
“Our hearts are broken for the victims, their families, and everyone affected by the tragedy,” said the Filipino singer, whose real name is Allan Pineda Lindo, in an Instagram post Sunday.
“I had just finished performing and left the stage minutes before it happened,” he added. “Please keep the victims, their families, and the organizers in your prayers. They need all they love and strength right now.”
Others who performed at the festival, including Nikkaela, Kaya Ko, Sade Awele and Wavyfay, echoed Lindo’s sentiments.
King Charles and Queen Camilla even weighed in, saying in a statement they were “profoundly saddened to learn of the dreadful attack and utterly tragic loss of life.”
“Our hearts and prayers go out to all those whose lives have been shattered by such a desperate tragedy,” they said following the attack in the British Commonwealth nation.
