DFA: No report of Pinoys hurt in Toronto van attack


ABS-CBN News
Posted at Apr 24 2018 12:47 PM
Fire fighters stand near a covered body after a van struck multiple people at a major intersection northern Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday. Saul Porto, Reuters
MANILA - The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said it is still checking on the condition of Filipinos in Toronto after a man plowed a white rental van into a crowd of pedestrians, killing 10 people.
"The Philippine Embassy in Ottawa said it has not received any report of Filipinos among the dead or injured and that the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto is still checking with authorities and members of the 270,000-strong Filipino Community," the DFA said in a statement.
Toronto police had said the incident, which happened some 16 kilometers from a meeting of G7 ministers, was a "deliberate attack."
Police arrested a suspect at the scene. He was later identified as 25-year-old Alek Minassian from a northern Toronto suburb.
Fifteen people remain in hospitals throughout the city, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said, adding that local, provincial and federal investigators were probing the case.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Canada. We mourn with the families of those who lost their lives in this tragedy," Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in the DFA statement.
Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, New York and Nice.
Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meeting would continue as planned into Tuesday, with officials discussing ways to secure democratic societies from foreign interference.
 
Though the act seemed "deliberate," officials did not identify a terror link.
Canada has only rarely been the scene of terror attacks.
In October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, hurting 4 people.
And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over 2 soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.
In March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked 2 soldiers at a military recruitment center in Toronto.
With a report from Agence France-Presse

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