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A driver killed at least nine people when he plowed a vehicle through a crowd at a Filipino cultural celebration in Vancouver, police in the Canadian city said Sunday.
The Filipino community had gathered in Vancouver's Sunset on Fraser neighbourhood on Saturday evening when festivalgoers were hit.
"We can confirm nine people have died after a man drove through a crowd at last night's Lapu Lapu Festival," Vancouver police said on X.
The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada's election.
Police said they have arrested a "lone suspect" -- a 30-year-old man from Vancouver who was known to them -- and were not treating the incident as an "act of terrorism."
An AFP reporter saw police officers at the scene, with parts of the festival venue cordoned off.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was "devastated" by the "horrific events."
"I offer my deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver," he wrote on X.
Footage posted online and verified by AFP shows a black SUV with a damaged hood parked on a street littered with debris, meters from first aiders tending to people lying on the ground.
Eyewitness Dale Selipe told the Vancouver Sun that she saw injured children on the street after the vehicle rammed into the crowd.
Steve Rai, Vancouver Police interim police chief, speaks during a news conference that there had been a vehicle and a suspect involved in an incident at the annual Lapu Lapu festival celebrating Filipino culture, at East 43rd Avenue and Fraser, in the south of Vancouver on April 26, 2025.