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A man dressed in medieval costume and armed with a saber killed two people and wounded five others on Saturday night in the Canadian city of Quebec, police said, who assured that in principle the attacker is not “associated with a terrorist group.”
During the celebration of Hallowe’en, “We were plunged into a night of horror when a 24-year-old man, who does not live in Quebec, approached us with the intention of causing as many victims as possible,” explained the head of the Quebec police service this Sunday. , Robert Pigeon.
“Everything seems to indicate” that the suspect, armed with a Japanese saber and disguised in a medieval costume, “would have chosen his victims at random,” he added.
The attacker, who was arrested early Sunday morning after a chase through the streets of Old Quebec, perpetrated the attacks in the historic center of the city, near the Chateau Frontenac and the National Assembly, the most touristic area of the capital of this Francophone province.
Police Chief Pigeon assured that two of the victims were French residents in Quebec for some years, without specifying whether they were among the dead or wounded.
The lives of the five wounded are not compromised, he explained, although he specified that some suffered “significant lacerations.”
“All of Quebec is in mourning this morning,” lamented the region’s Deputy Prime Minister, Geneviève Guilbault, denouncing the “barbaric” acts.
While the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin trudeau, denounced a “terrible tragedy”, reacting to the attack Saturday night on Twitter.
“A murderer walking around”
Karin Lacoste, a Quebec City resident, was shopping for food at night when she saw several police officers armed with bulletproof vests.
“One of them told me ‘¡run home because there is someone walking around, he is a murderer and he has killed people! “”, she told LCN, assuring that she was “very scared.”
According to three witnesses cited by the Quebec daily Le Soleil, the attacker cut the throat of his first victim near the Chateau Frontenac hotel and there was “a lot of blood”.
The man allegedly killed the second person on the Rue des Remparts, and on his way to the Old Port he wounded the other victims, according to the newspaper.
The suspect surrendered to the police and at the time of his arrest he was lying on the ground, barefoot and hypothermic, Le Soleil reported, while authorities assured that the attacker was “transported to a hospital to be evaluated.”
It is anticipated that the suspect, originally from Montreal, appear in court by video conference during the day.
“I think he planned the attack,” said Pigeon, noting that the young man had “verbalized his desire to act” five years ago, but had no criminal record.
The mayor of Quebec, Régis Labeaume, referred to the events “as mind-boggling, terrifying” and “beyond understanding”, while evoking the suspect’s “mental health” problems.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the streets of the historic center of Quebec were little traveled at the time of the attacks, independent journalist Jordan Proust told AFP.
“Most of the kids who celebrated Halloween did it in the afternoon,” he explained.
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