Ten people have been killed and at least 15 wounded after two men went on a knife rampage in at least 13 locations in two communities in central Canada, according to police.
Police responding to emergency calls on Sunday found 10 people dead in the Indigenous community of James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby town of Weldon in Saskatchewan province, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore told a news conference.
“Several additional victims have been injured, 15 of which at this point have been transported to various hospitals,” she said, according to Al Jazeera.
More victims may have made their way to hospitals on their own, she added.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the attacks were “horrific and heartbreaking” and the government was closely monitoring the situation.
“I’m thinking of those who have lost a loved one and of those who were injured,” he wrote on Twitter.
Police named the two suspects in the rampage Damien Sanderson and Myles Sanderson.
Officials said the two men, in their early 30s, were last seen travelling in a black Nissan Rogue and last spotted in the provincial capital of Regina, about 320 km (200 miles) south of where the attacks took place.
Police in Saskatchewan issued a province-wide dangerous person alert, with authorities in neighbouring Alberta and Manitoba – a vast region almost half the size of Europe – later following suit.
The James Smith Cree Nation, with a population of 2,500, declared a local state of emergency.
ZZ/PR