The Philippine government’s Department of Foreign Affairs on April 24 said that no Filipino was hurt in the van attack that happened in Toronto. The DFA also said that it is still checking on the condition of Filipinos in Toronto after a man plowed a white rental van into a crowd of pedestrians.
The attack that occurred downtown on April 23 killed 10 people. Police arrested a suspect at the scene. The suspect was identified as 25-year-old Alek Minassian.
Toronto police had said the incident, which happened some 16 kilometers from a meeting of G7 ministers, was a “deliberate attack.”
“The Philippine Embassy in Ottawa said it has not received any report of Filipinos among the dead or injured and that the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto is still checking with authorities and members of the 270,000-strong Filipino Community,” the DFA said in a statement. Fifteen people remain in hospitals throughout the city, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said.
The police chief added that local, provincial and federal investigators were probing the case. Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, New York and Nice. Though the act seemed “deliberate,” officials did not identify a terror link.