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At Least 11 People Killed After Car Plows Into Vancouver Filipino Festival

Dozens of people were also reported injured after a car drove into a Filipino community festival in British Columbia, the police said.

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The police in Vancouver said a driver plowed an SUV into a crowd at a Filipino street festival on Saturday.Rich Lam/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

At first, no one found it suspicious that the black Audi SUV had gone around a portable barrier into a street packed with festivalgoers lining up at food trucks and checking out artisans’ wares.

It was about 8 p.m. Saturday, and Apl.de.ap, a Filipino American rapper and a founding member of the Black Eyed Peas, had finished a concert that was the signature event of the Lapu Lapu Festival organized by the Filipino community in Vancouver, British Columbia.

At first the large SUV crawled through the crowd, and Kris Pangilinan, who was selling clothing at a booth, assumed that it had been let in to help another merchant load up his wares and close shop.

Then, it started to speed up.

“He sideswiped someone where the vendors are,” Mr. Pangilinan said on Sunday after a largely sleepless night. “All of a sudden I hear this exhaust and the sound of the acceleration of the vehicle. Then, boom: He hits dozens of people.”

Shortly afterward, police officers were commandeering the tables in Mr. Pangilinan’s tent to use as makeshift stretchers.

At least 11 people, ranging in age from 5 to 65, were killed in the episode, which Prime Minister Mark Carney described as a “car-ramming attack.” Dozens more were injured, the interim chief of the Vancouver Police Department, Steve Rai. said Sunday, warning that it was likely that some of them may die.

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