FIRST Minister John Swinney has expressed his “sympathy and solidarity” after nine people were killed when a car was driven into a street festival in Vancouver.
More than 20 people were also injured in the attack in Canada where revellers were celebrating Filipino culture.
The vehicle entered the street where the Lapu Lapu Day festival was taking place just before 8.15pm local time on Saturday.
“Nine people were killed and more than 20 were injured in what the Vancouver police are describing as a car ramming attack,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Car cancelled his first campaign event on the final day of the election campaign ahead of Monday’s vote following the attack.
“An investigation is ongoing to determine how and why this horrific attack occurred. Authorities have confirmed one person is [in] custody and it is believed they acted alone.”
Following news of the attack, Swinney wrote on Twitter/X: “I express the sympathy and solidarity of Scotland to the people of Canada on the terrible attack in Vancouver.
“I hope for the safety and recovery of all affected.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on X: “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the terrible events at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu festival last night.
In a statement King Charles, Canada’s head of state, said “we send our deepest possible sympathy at a most agonizing time for so many in Canada”.
A 30-year-old Vancouver man was arrested at the scene and the local police department’s Major Crime Section is overseeing the investigation.
Police said on Sunday they are “confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism”.
Interim Vancouver police chief Steve Rai told a news conference a man was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media shows a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain-link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
“I’m sorry,” the man says, holding his hand to his head.
Rai declined to comment on the video but said the person in custody was a “lone male” who was “known to police in certain circumstances”.
The festival was held in a South Vancouver neighbourhood.
Video posted on social media showed victims and debris strewn across a long stretch of road, with at least seven people lying immobile on the ground.
Vancouver had more than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9% of the city’s population, according to Statistics Canada which conducts the national census.
Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers who came to the Philippines in the 16th century.
The organisers of the Vancouver event said he “represents the soul of native resistance, a powerful force that helped shape the Filipino identity in the face of colonisation”.
