Several people died after a car overwhelmed the crowd during a festival called Lapu Lapu in Vancouver, in the west of Canada. The police said it, adding that the SUV driver was arrested.
According to reports by the police, cited by the Canadian agency Canadian Press, the driver “invested the crowd” during the road festival at the intersection of East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street, shortly after 20:00 on Friday. At that moment the Festival of the Lapu Lapù day was taking place, organized by the Filipin community, in the South Vancouver district. Videos published on social networks show victims and debris scattered along a large stretch of road flanked by trucks that sold street food, with at least seven people immobile on the ground. In some photos taken on the scene you can see a black SUV with the crumpled front. The mayor of Vancouver, Ken SIM, said in a statement that he was “shocked and deeply saddened” for what he called a “horrible accident” at the Festival. “Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected and with the Filipin community of Vancouver at this incredibly difficult moment,” he said. Even the premier of British Columbia, David Eby, wrote on social media that he is “shocked and with a broken heart” in learning of the lost lives and wounded at the Festival. The day of Lapu Lapu takes its name from an indigenous fighter of the resistance of the Philippines who struggled against the Spanish colonization in the 16th century.