Five people have been killed after gunmen opened fire at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center during evening prayers, the mosque’s president told reporters Sunday.
According to CBC, multiple people are also feared wounded, though their condition is not known at this time. The director of the center has said at least five people were killed, but that number has not been confirmed by police. A few dozen people were inside the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec in the Sainte-Foy neighborhood when the shooting began just after 8:00 P.M.
via Reuters:
Earlier, a witness told Reuters that up to three gunmen fired on about 40 people inside the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center. Police put up a security perimeter around the mosque and declined to comment to reporters about the incident.
“Why is this happening here? This is barbaric,” said the mosque’s president, Mohamed Yangui.
Two students have been arrested for the shooting at the mosque which came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban.
Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed Khadir were arrested shortly after the attack at Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center at around 8pM on Sunday night.
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Philippe Couillard, Quebec’s premier, tweeted that “government is mobilized to ensure the safety of people of Quebec.”
“Quebec categorically rejects this barbaric violence. Our solidarity is with the victims, the injured and their families,” Couillard said in a second tweet.
https://twitter.com/phcouillard/status/825899455325097985
According to CNBC, mosque president Mohamed Yangui, who was not inside the mosque when the shooting occurred, received 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.
