Vancouver Lapu Lapu festival latest: Several dead after car ploughs into Filipino festival, as police rule out terrorism

A number of folks have died after a automobile crashed right into a crowd at a Lapu Lapu day road celebration.

Lapu Lapu day is a Filipino celebration of Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous Visayan Chieftain from Mactan, Philippines.

In keeping with the road celebration’s web site, Lapu-Lapu is a thought-about the primary nationwide hero of the Philippines.

He’s described as an “enduring image of unwavering resistance and indomitable spirit in the course of the Age of Exploration,” and “the primary to rise in opposition to the tide of Spanish colonisation”.

The incident occurred at a Lapu Lapu road celebration in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The motive force drove right into a crowd at a the pageant at E. forty first Avenue and Fraser road.

The map under reveals the place the road celebration was going down, in keeping with the organiser’s web site.

Canadian Police have mentioned they’re “assured” that the deadly incident at a road pageant on Saturday night time “was not an act of terrorism”.

Canadian political figures are reacting to the deadly incident at a road pageant in Vancouver on Saturday incident.

Jagmeet Singh, chief of the New Democratic Celebration who was on the pageant earlier within the day, mentioned: “As we wait to study extra, our ideas are with the victims and their households – and Vancouver’s Filipino neighborhood, who had been coming collectively in the present day to rejoice resilience.”

Conservative Celebration chief Pierre Poilievre mentioned: “My ideas are with the Filipino neighborhood and all of the victims focused by this mindless assault. Thank-you to the primary responders who’re on the scene as we wait to listen to extra.”

David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, the province the place Vancouver is situated, mentioned he was shocked and heartbroken. “We’re in touch with the Metropolis of Vancouver and can present any help wanted,” he added.

Vancouver mayor Ken Sim mentioned in a press release on X that he was “shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at in the present day’s Lapu Lapu Day occasion”.

“Our ideas are with all these affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino neighborhood throughout this extremely tough time.”

“I didn’t get to see the driving force, all I heard was an engine rev,” Yoseb Vardeh, co-owner of meals truck Bao Buns, mentioned in an interview with Postmedia.

“I obtained exterior my meals truck, I appeared down the highway and theres simply our bodies in every single place,” mentioned Vardeh, as his voice broke.

“He went by the entire block, he went straight down the center.”

Vancouver Police have simply issued an additional assertion after the incident on Saturday night.

The power have now recognized the suspect who was arrested on the scene as a 30-year-old man from Vancouver.

It added: “The investigation is ongoing and is being led the Vancouver Police Division’s Main Crime Part.”

It’s not but identified whether or not the incident at Lapu Lapu pageant in Vancouver on Saturday night was an accident or deliberate.

Canadian police mentioned the driving force of a automobile which ploughed right into a crowd was in custody, however didn’t add any extra element on the character of the incident.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has launched a press release after the incident in Vancouver on Saturday night.

He mentioned he was monitoring the scenario intently and added: ““I’m devastated to listen to concerning the horrific occasions on the Lapu Lapu pageant in Vancouver earlier this night.

“I supply my deepest condolences to the family members of these killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian neighborhood, and to everybody in Vancouver.

“We’re all mourning with you. We’re monitoring the scenario intently, and grateful to our first responders for his or her swift motion.”