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VANCOUVER — Police in Vancouver say nine people are dead after an SUV plowed through a Vancouver street festival being staged by the city’s Filipino community Saturday night, leaving a trail of debris and victims in its wake.
Witness Nic Magtajas described an SUV roaring through the Lapu Lapu Day crowd at high speed, sending pedestrians’ bodies flying.
“I saw a bunch of people go over, go high up from the impact of hitting the car and such,” he said.
Police said multiple people were also injured and sent to several hospitals, while Vancouver Coastal Health declared a mass-casualty event.
Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai told a midnight news conference that a 30-year-old Vancouver man who was known to police was arrested after being initially apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media shows a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
“I’m sorry,” the man says, holding his hand to his head.
Rai declined to comment on the video but said the person in custody was a “lone male” who was “known to police in certain circumstances.”
VPD said in a statement that a man “drove into a large crowd” at the street festival near East 43rd Avenue and Fraser Street just at 8:14 p.m.
The street had been lined with flags and food carts for what was billed by organizers as a party to honour “the rich tapestry of cultures that make up the beautiful mosaic of British Columbia and the Philippines alike.”
Lapu Lapu Day is named after an Indigenous resistance fighter in the Philippines who fought against Spanish colonization in the 16th Century.
Video posted on social media showed victims and wreckage strewn across a long stretch of road, with at least a dozen people immobile on the ground, while a black SUV with a wrecked front section was at the scene.
Vancouver Coastal Health told The Canadian Press it had confirmed a “code orange” mass casualty event. The health authority was not able to confirm the number of injured or dead as of late Saturday night.
Magtajas and Jihed Issa were working at a store facing the festival and said they initially had their backs to the scene when they heard a car engine revving and turned around to look.
“And then we just see him go full speed through a bunch of people,” said Magtajas, 19.
Magtajas described the sound of the impacts and said each contact with the vehicle was “so loud.”
“Just a lot of loud bangs, not to mention the engine revving as well,” he said.
Issa, 17, said he saw the black SUV going through the entire crowd on the street.
“People were screaming,” he said. “It (the vehicle) went all the way to the end of the street,” he said.
“After it happened, I ran outside to the street and I was trying to figure out what happened. I made it to halfway into the street, looked around (and) there was a lot of people panicking, people on the floor — bodies, if you will.”
Issa said he saw the SUV come to a stop at the end of the street, with smoke coming from it.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had been attending the festival just before the tragedy unfolded, in the closing stages of the federal election campaign.
He said on social media platform X that he was “horrified” to learn about what happened at the festival.
“As we wait to learn more, our thoughts are with the victims and their families — and Vancouver’s Filipino community, who were coming together today to celebrate resilience,” Singh said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on social media platform X that he was “devastated to hear about the horrific events” at the 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,” Carney wrote.
“We are monitoring the situation closely, and thankful to our first responders for their swift action.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he was “shocked by the horrific news.”
“My thoughts are with the Filipino community and all the victims targeted by this senseless attack. Thank you to the first responders who are at the scene as we wait to hear more,” he wrote on X.
Rai said he had no knowledge whether the attack was related to Monday’s federal election.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said in a statement that he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by what he called a “horrific incident” at the festival, while B.C. Premier David Eby said in a post to social media platform X that he’s “shocked and heartbroken” to hear about the lives lost and those injured.
Saturday’s event was the second annual street celebration of the day in Vancouver, and organizers had said it was an opportunity to mark “the enduring affect Filipino values, notably the spirit of bayanihan — the collective community effort.”
Vancouver Kingsway MP Don Davies was at the festival earlier in the day and he was visibly shaken after he returned to the scene, speaking about the stark contrast between the joy he saw earlier versus “this appalling destruction.”
“I’m just sickened and appalled,” Davies said. “I wanted to come immediately and see what’s happening and offer my support and prayers to the Filipino community in particular, but the wider community at large.
“This is an attack that we don’t expect to see anywhere, but especially not in Canada.”
Davies said he couldn’t understand what would motivate the incident, but the community will not let it “crush the spirit.”
“I hope that as many lives as possible can be saved,” he said. “And we just have to condemn this, and we can’t let this define us.”
The investigation is being led the Vancouver Police major crime section.
— With files from David Boles in Edmonton.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2025.
Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press
