BBC News, Washington
ReutersEleven people were killed after a suspected car ramming attack in the Canadian city of Vancouver on Saturday.
The incident, which took place at the annual Lapu Lapu festival celebrating Filipino culture, also left dozens of people injured.
A 30-year-old male suspect has been identified as Kai-Ji Adam Lo. He is in custody and faces several murder charges.
What happened?
The attack took place at approximately 20:14 local time on Saturday (03:14 GMT on Sunday) at an event marking Lapu Lapu Day, which is celebrated every year on 27 April.
Police later said that tens of thousands of people had been in attendance.
Festival-goers said a single vehicle was involved in the attack, which took place on East 43rd Avenue and Fraser in the south of Vancouver.
“There’s a car that went just through the whole street and just hitting everyone,” eyewitness Abigail Andiso told the Associated Press.
“I saw one dead, one man on the ground, and I went… towards the end where the car went, then there are more casualties, and you can see straight away there are about… maybe 20 people down, and everyone is panicking, everyone is screaming.”
James Cruzat, another eyewitness, told AP: “It was heartbreaking. I couldn’t even imagine that it’s actually happening in real life, because normally we see that [on] TV or [in] movies. It was really shocking.”
Other witnesses reported that some of the pedestrians who were struck were close to where food trucks were parked.
The driver of the vehicle was apprehended by bystanders and taken into custody by police officers.
What is the Lapu Lapu festival?
The Lapu Lapu Festival in Vancouver, and similar festivals in the Philippines and around the world, take place every year to commemorate Lapu-Lapu, a national hero who resisted Spanish colonisation in the 1500s.
Also known as Lapulapu, Lapu Lapu was an indigenous chief of Mactan, an island in the Philippines.
In 1521, he and his men defeated Spanish forces led by Ferdinand Magellan and some of his native allies at the battle of Mactan, delaying Spanish occupation of the region for over 40 years.
He is considered a hero in the modern-day Philippines, and monuments in his honour are common around the country.
Several Filipino government organisations – such as the national police service – use his image on their seals.
Lapu Lapu Day was officially recognised by the government of British Columbia in 2023. Filipinos form one of the largest immigrant groups in the province.
Who were the victims?
So far, very little is known about the identity of those were were killed and wounded in the attack.
In a brief news conference on Saturday, acting Vancouver police chief Steve Rai said that men, women and young people were among the victims.
Their ages range from five to 65, he added.
The attack has deeply affected Vancouver’s tight-knit Filipino community.
RJ Aquino, the head of the Filipino BC organisation, said that “last night was extremely difficult and the community will feel this for a long time.”
“We know that there’s a lot of questions floating about and we don’t have all the answers, but we want to tell everybody that we’re grieving,” he added.
Who is the suspect?
Police have named the suspect as Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, and have charged him with eight counts of second degree murder.
“The charge assessment is ongoing and further charges are anticipated,” police said in a statement.
While investigators have not confirmed a motive, Rai said that police are confident “that the evidence in this case does not lead us to believe this was an act of terrorism.”
The suspect, he added, has “a significant history of interactions with police and healthcare professionals related to mental health”.
Vancouver’s mayor, Ken Sim, similarly said that “mental health appears to be the underlying issue here.”
No further details have been provided on Lo’s previous interactions with police, what they entailed or when they took place.
Rai said only that there had not been any interaction with officers in the “immediate” lead-up to the attack
