Quebec: Six people were killed and eight more injured after gunmen opened fire at a Quebec City mosque, police said today. Police spokeswoman Christine Coulombe told journalists that two suspects were arrested following the attack that police were treating as a “terrorist act.” Police did not rule out the possibility of a third suspect who had fled the scene. The motive of the attack was not immediately clear. Police set up a perimeter around the mosque.
Earlier, a witness told Reuters that up to three gunmen fired on about 40 people inside the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center.
“Why is this happening here? This is barbaric,” said the mosque’s president, Mohamed Yangui.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter: “Tonight, Canadians grieve for those killed in a cowardly attack on a mosque in Quebec City. My thoughts are with victims & their families.”
The Prime Minister also said:
I’ve just spoken with Premier @phcouillard and am being briefed by our officials. We have offered any & all assistance needed.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 30, 2017
Quebec’s prime minister, Philippe Couillard, said in a series of Twitter posts that the government was “mobilized to ensure the security of the people of Quebec.”
“Quebec categorically rejects this barbaric violence,” he wrote. “Solidarity with Quebec people of Muslim faith.
In June 2016, a pig’s head was left on the doorstep of the cultural center.
Yangui, who was not inside the mosque when the shooting occurred, said he got frantic calls from people at evening prayers. He did not know how many were injured, saying they had been taken to different hospitals across Quebec City.
Incidents of Islamophobia increased in Quebec in recent years amid a political debate over banning the niqab, or Muslim face covering. In 2013, police investigated after a mosque in the Saguenay region of Quebec was splattered with what was believed to be pig blood.
In the neighboring province of Ontario, a mosque was set on fire in 2015, a day after an attack by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris.
The attack comes as Canada has vowed to open its arms wide to Muslims and refugees after US President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration ban Friday sparked travel chaos and outrage around the world.
Canada will offer temporary residence permits to people stranded in the country as a result of Trump’s order, the immigration ministry said Sunday.
Canada has welcomed more than 39,670 Syrian refugees between November 2015 and early January 2017, according to government figures.
