Two people were killed and nine injured after being run over by a pickup truck Monday in the small town of Amke, Quebec, according to police.
Quebec police spokeswoman Helen Saint-Pierre told AFP that a 38-year-old man was arrested at the scene, explaining that an investigation is underway to uncover the circumstances of the tragedy and determine whether its motives were intentional.
Helen Saint-Pierre added: “Everything indicates that this is an isolated act. There is no more danger in the area, and there is probably one suspect.”
The tragedy occurred in the center of the city of Amke, which is inhabited by just over six thousand people, and is located in northeastern Quebec City.
Eyewitnesses told local media that the pick-up truck hit a number of people on a sidewalk, before it continued traveling for about 500 meters and ran over other people.
The police stated that the two dead, one of whom was sixty and the other seventy, and two of the wounded were in serious condition, and a number of the injured were transferred to a hospital in Quebec.
Rescuers found victims along the road and on the sidewalks on both sides of the street. Media reported that among the injured were children, but the police did not confirm this information.
According to spokeswoman Saint-Pierre, the driver fled the scene but then turned himself in to the police at a nearby station. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter: “My thoughts are with my fellow countrymen in Quebec. My thoughts are with all those affected as we await more information on today’s tragic events.”
In early February, a man deliberately rammed his bus into a nursery school near Montreal, killing two four-year-olds and injuring six others. In 2018, a man plowed into a crowd in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, killing 11 and injuring 16 in the deadliest car-ramming attack in the city’s history.