Five dead, suspect killed in Toronto-area shooting

The attack took place in different apartments in the same building and one wounded person was taken to a hospital.

Five people have been killed and another wounded in a shooting on the outskirts of the Canadian city of Toronto.

The suspect also died Sunday after an exchange of fire with law enforcement officers, Police Chief Jim MacSween told reporters, saying the shooting took place in an apartment building.

The injured man was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police were called to the scene Sunday night.

“Once the officers arrived, they were met with… a horrific scene in which numerous victims died,” MacSween told reporters.

Police are investigating the motive and whether there was a connection between the victims and the male suspect, who has not been identified. The suspect allegedly acted alone.

The victims were found in different apartments in the building, which is located in Vaughan, in the suburbs about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Toronto.

Residents were immediately evacuated and dozens of ambulances and police were on the scene.

Canada has experienced an increase in gun violence, which has led it to recently legislate to ban firearms.

In April 2020, a gunman disguised as a police officer killed 22 people in the eastern province of Nova Scotia, the worst mass shooting in Canada.

In September this year, a man stabbed 11 people to death and injured 18 others, mostly in an isolated Indian community in Saskatchewan.

Violent firearm-related crime accounts for less than 3 percent of all violent crime in Canada, but since 2009, the per capita rate of weapons fired with the intent to kill or injure has increased fivefold.

Canada banned 1,500 types of military-grade or assault firearms in May 2020, days after the shooting in Nova Scotia.