According to local authorities, a driver killed “many people” by farming in a group of party members at the Philippine Street Music Festival in the Canadian city of Vancouver on Saturday night.
Vancouver police said they were investigating “massive casualties” on the Rapp Lap Festival, “several people were killed and others were injured.” Police said they had taken away a 30-year-old Vancouver man driver.
“About 8:14 pm on April 26, a man drove into a large number of people participating in the Lapu Lapu Festival at East 43 and Fraser Streets,” Vancouver police said in a social media article. The festival celebrates the Philippines’ national hero Datu Lapu-Lapu.
Vancouver police said in an email Sunday that investigators ruled out terrorism from motivation, but did not provide further details.
During the press conference, Interim Police Chief Steve Rai did not specify the number of people killed and injured, saying only that there were many casualties. A spokeswoman for Vancouver General Hospital said they had received multiple patients injured during the holidays.
Mr Rai had no possible motive to resolve the incident, but said the driver had been known to the police. Police said members of the crowd subdued the man before police arrived at the scene.
The fatal incident happened within less than 48 hours of the federal elections to be held in Canada. When the reporter asked if the incident was related to the election, Mr Rai said: “I know nothing about it.”
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a social media post that he was “so shocked that he heard horror incidents at the Lapu Lapu Festival in Vancouver tonight.”
“I express my deepest condolences to everyone who was killed and injured, the Canadian Philippines community, and to Vancouver,” he said. “We are all mourning with you.”
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said he was “shocked and saddened by this horrible incident.”
According to the 2021 census data, Vancouver prides itself on being a diverse multicultural city, with more than half of its residents seeing themselves as “visible minority groups.”
Lapu-Lapu Day is the annual celebration of the Philippines, marking the memory of Datu Lapu-Lapu who stood up in Spanish colonization. The festival will be officially held in Vancouver in 2023.
