TORONTO — Two males died Monday after a pickup truck plowed into pedestrians beside a highway within the japanese Quebec city of Amqui. A senior Canadian official quickly dominated out a terrorism assault or a nationwide safety incident.
A provincial police spokeswoman mentioned 9 different folks had been injured, together with two whose accidents are thought-about severe.
Sgt. Hélène St-Pierre mentioned the 38-year-old driver, an area resident, turned himself in to police and was arrested below suspicion of committing a deadly hit and run.
A senior authorities official aware of 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 had been each males, one in his 60s and the opposite in his 70s. Among the many injured, two suffered severe accidents and the opposite seven had been being evaluated, she mentioned.
St-Pierre mentioned investigators and accident reconstruction specialists had been working to ascertain the circumstances of the crash.
“All the things signifies it was an remoted incident, and that there isn’t any 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 350 220 miles northeast of Quebec Metropolis.
The regional well being board confirmed {that a} “code orange” had been declared on the Amqui hospital, which usually 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 yards.
He noticed a police officer performing CPR on one individual mendacity on the bottom. He mentioned there didn’t look like any youngsters within the group.
Final month in Laval, Quebec, police mentioned a person driving a metropolis bus intentionally smashed right into a day care heart, 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.