Canada: Mass murder with six dead – Four children among the victims – 2024-03-09 20:41:04

Two adults and four children were murdered inside a suburban Ottawa home, police in Canada said Thursday.

The mass killing took place late Wednesday night in the suburb of Barhaven.

“It’s obviously a horrific scene,” police chief Eric Stamps told CBC, without going into details about the circumstances of the brutal crime.

Police arrived at the scene of the crime at around 11pm on Wednesday (local time, 06:00 on Thursday in Greece), after being alerted that shots had been heard.

The mayor of the Canadian capital, Mark Sutcliffe, spoke of “one of the most shocking incidents of violence in the history of our city” in a post on social media.

The suspect was arrested

Police have arrested a suspect who is being questioned, while an injured person has been taken to a hospital. Authorities have not released the identities of the victims.

A Sri Lankan High Commission spokesman, who did not want to be named, told CBC that the dead included a Sri Lankan woman and her four children, and said the father, also from Sri Lanka, survived but was injured. .

In an interview with CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning, the police chief said he could not yet comment on the relationship, if any, between the victims and the suspect, but said investigators do not believe this is a case of domestic violence.

“This is a tragic case and will greatly affect the city of Ottawa, let alone the Barhaven neighborhood. So obviously we encourage everyone to reach out and ask for help to deal with this traumatic event,” he stressed.