Canada: Shooting in Ontario kills 5

Five people were killed and another injured on Sunday after a gunman attacked them in their apartments in a condominium in the municipality of Vaughan, police said.

Vaughan is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Toronto, Canada's most populous city and the capital of Ontario province.

Gun violence is on the increase in Canada, though such mass shootings remain rare in the country.

What else do we know about the incident?

The suspected attacker was later also killed in a gunfight with police, local police chief Jim MacSween told reporters. 

MacSween said the injured person was in the hospital and expected to survive.

Residents were evacuated from the building immediately after the attacks, but MacSween said there was no further threat to the community.

Kristy Denette, a spokeswoman for Ontario's Special Investigative Unit, said "one officer fired at the man and he was killed." Police recovered a semi-automatic handgun from the scene.

Denette said there were "multiple deceased (victims) located on several floors."

Authorities did not name the 73-year-old suspect but said that he was a resident of the building.Police were reported to be investigating possible links between the suspect, who was said to have acted alone, and his victims.

What is the situation with firearms violence in Canada?

In May 2020, Canada banned 1,500 types of military-grade or assault-style firearms days after a gunman disguised as a policeman killed 22 people in the eastern province of Nova Scotia.

According to Canadian government figures, less than 3% of violent crimes in Canada involve firearms. But there has been a fivefold increase in the per capita rate of guns being fired with intent to kill or wound since 2009.

The country prides itself on a gun violence record that is very different from that of its neighbor, the United States, where firearms-related crime causes tens of thousands of deaths and injuries each year.

tj/fb (AFP, AP)