Several killed as car rams into Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu festival crowd

A number of people killed and multiple others injured as driver ploughs into crowd at a prominent Filipino festival.

Several people have been killed and multiple others were injured in Vancouver after a vehicle drove into a crowd at a Filipino street festival in the western Canadian city, police say.

Police said the incident happened shortly after 8pm on Saturday (03:00 GMT Sunday) in the city’s Sunset on Fraser neighbourhood, and that the driver had been taken into custody.

One witness told CTV News that he saw a black vehicle driving erratically in the area of the festival just before the crowd was struck, Reuters news agency reported.

An ambulance is parked at the site of the Lapu Lapu event in Vancouver [Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters]

Vancouver’s Mayor Ken Sim said, “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at today’s Lapu Lapu Day event.”

The festival commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time,” Sim wrote.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated to hear about the horrific events” at the Lapu Lapu festival.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver. We are all mourning with you,” he said, adding that the federal government was closely monitoring developments as the investigation continues.

A food truck owner described scenes of devastation after the car tore through the crowd.

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

“I got outside my food truck, I looked down the road and there’s just bodies everywhere,” said Vardeh, as his voice broke. “He went through the whole block. He went straight down the middle.”