Ottawa police say one man has been arrested after an hours-long lockdown on Parliament Hill.
“The barricaded man name at East Block has ended with out incident. One man is in custody,” Ottawa police stated in a social media post shortly earlier than 11 p.m. ET on Saturday. The put up additionally stated the legal investigation is ongoing and an replace might be offered within the morning.
There was no speedy phrase on prices.
Earlier at 7:30 p.m. ET, Insp. Mark Bouwmeester instructed reporters that “the circumstances of this incident are thought-about suspicious,” however he gave few particulars about what was taking place inside. Investigators say the person gained unauthorized entry to East Block on Saturday afternoon.
“We’re presently involved with the person, and our precedence is to resolve this example peacefully,” he stated on the time. “At the moment there isn’t a identified accidents, and we consider that the person is the one individual contained in the constructing.”
Police wouldn’t say whether or not the person was believed to be armed or whether or not he had made threats.
Ottawa police introduced in specialised models, together with at the least one canine unit and explosives models. Two bomb disposal unit robots had been seen in entrance of Centre Block.
Police initially launched a warning Saturday afternoon telling anybody in East Block, which homes parliamentary workplaces, to hunt shelter within the nearest room, shut and lock all doorways and conceal.
Folks had been then evacuated from the constructing, as police briefly shut down a major stretch of Wellington Road in entrance of Parliament Hill — blocking visitors and pedestrians.
Hours after the lockdown started, police prolonged the exclusion zone from Wellington Road one block again to Sparks Road.
A authorities net web page says the East Block homes the workplaces of senators and their workers, however there’s little exercise on the Hill as a result of Parliament is dissolved for the continued federal election.
The identical net web page says the constructing as soon as held the workplaces of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier,” and that it nonetheless comprises “trustworthy recreations of the workplaces of its well-known occupants from the nineteenth century.”
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