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Toronto attack: Four dead as van rams crowd of pedestrians

Incident occurred as G7 cabinet ministers were gathered in the city to discuss a range of international issues

Police say the driver of a speeding rental van mounted the pavement of a busy road in north Toronto and slammed into eight to 10 people on Monday afternoon.

There were unconfirmed local reports of four fatalities. Toronto police said it was too early to confirm the number of pedestrians struck.

The suspect reportedly fled the scene but was arrested and is in police custody.

“Obviously we are just learning about the situation in Toronto. Our hearts go out to anyone affected. We are obviously going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters.

An eyewitness described the bloody aftermath along Yonge Street, one of Toronto’s busiest roads. Toronto is Canada’s largest city with a population of 2.7 million.

“We saw the last the last few people get hit, that’s when we were driving north on Yonge Street, which is one of the busiest streets here in Toronto, I’m still a bit shaking, sorry if I cannot speak properly,” the eyewitness, named Diego, told Sky News.

He followed the trail backward and described people lying on the sidewalk. Helicopter footage of the area showed blood-soaked clothing strewn across the sidewalk.

“From what I witnessed, I think that’s what happened. It was deliberate. It was on purpose. I don’t know if he was drunk. I don’t know if he maybe had a medical condition,” the eyewitness said.

Officers were called to the scene at 1:27 pm (5.27pm GMT), police said, without specifying whether or not the incident was deliberate.

Television footage showed multiple first responders treating people on the sidewalk and an ambulance bus on standby.

Another eye witnesses described a white van careening in and out of pedestrians walking on the sidewalk along Yonge Street near Finch Avenue, an area north of Toronto’s downtown core. The neighbourhood is mainly a residential area filled with condominiums and high rises, a commuter belt in a largely affluent neighbourhood. A major subway station near the cordoned off site was shut by police.

Police initially estimated that eight to 10 pedestrians were hit but clarified on Twitter a short time later that it is “too early to confirm the number of pedestrians struck or their injuries.”

MULTIPLE pedestrians have been injured in a suspected deliberate attack...

Deranged man obsessed with mass murderers kills 10, wounds 15 after driving van through Toronto sidewalk

A maniacal college student obsessed with mass murderers plowed a rental van into a crowd of pedestrians in Toronto on Monday, killing 10 innocent people and wounding another 15 in Canada's worst massacre in nearly three decades, according to authorities and reports.

Alek Minassian, a student at Toronto's Seneca College, jumped a curb and sped along a sidewalk before slamming into a group of people on Yonge St., one of the city's main thoroughfares, shortly before 1:30 p.m., Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters.

A motive for the gruesome midday bloodbath was not immediately known, but U.S. and Canadian officials briefed on the matter said Minassian, 25, has a history of mental illness. He has no criminal history.

Before the horrific Monday afternoon attack, Minassian had researched and engaged in online discussions about Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old California man who stabbed and shot six people dead near the University of California-Santa Barbara in 2014 before taking his own life, sources told NBC News. Minassian had apparently expressed admiration for Rodger, who claimed rejection by women drove him to his monstrous rampage, according to the sources.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale declined to comment on the motive for the crash, but said it was likely not terror-related.

"The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous, but they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security," Goodale told reporters at the scene.

Minassian's murderous ride left a milelong trail of destruction across about 17 Toronto city blocks, as scores of people were out enjoying an unseasonably warm day.

He sped off amid the frenzy of crashing into the crowd but was arrested within minutes, according to cops. His hectic arrest was caught on video and posted to social media.

"C'mon, kill me!" Minassian, dressed all in black, can be heard yelling in the video as he gets out of a white Ryder rental van, pointing some type of object at responding officers.

"Shoot me in the head!" he shouts as an officer approaches.

Minassian eventually dropped the object, which police did not describe. Officers then took the suspect, of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, into custody.

Big RR wrote:thank you Tailgunner Joe.