Six people killed in Canadian capital in rare case of mass murder

Six people, including four children, were killed in the Canadian capital Ottawa late on Wednesday, police said on Thursday, rocking a country where mass murders are rare. Police quickly arrested a man and said the deaths did not appear to be linked to domestic or intimate partner violence.

Six people, including four children, were killed in the Canadian capital Ottawa late on Wednesday, police said on Thursday, rocking a country where mass murders are rare.

Police quickly arrested a man and said the deaths did not appear to be linked to domestic or intimate partner violence. "The scene is obviously a horrific one," police chief Eric Stubbs told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, without providing details on how the victims died.

Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe, in a social media post, said it was "one of the most shocking incidents of violence in our city's history". Ottawa, which has a population of one million, saw 14 murders in 2023 and 15 in 2022.

The victims were found inside a house in the southwestern suburb of Barrhaven and have not been identified. Police arrived on the scene following emergency calls shortly before 11 p.m. on Wednesday, they said in a statement.

Mass killings in Canada are infrequent. In December 2022, a man shot five people in a Toronto suburb before being gunned down by police. In September that year, a man stabbed and killed 11 people in the western province of Saskatchewan. He died of a cocaine overdose shortly after being arrested by police.