OTTAWA, Canada
Downtown Ottawa and the Parliament buildings remained under lockdown Wednesday following an attack on Canada’s capital city.
The chaos began about 10 a.m. (1400GMT) when a sentry on guard at the National War Memorial was shot.
After shooting 24-year-old military reservist Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the war memorial, a lone gunman seized a car and drove to the nearby Parliament buildings.
He entered and witnesses reported 30 to 50 shots were fired inside where members of Parliament where in a caucus session.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was whisked to safety by an emergency escape route.
The shooter, who was shot and killed by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, has been identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. The CBC reported that U.S. officials named the suspect and said he was a Canadian, born in 1982. Canadian officials have not yet confirmed the shooter’s identity.
The scene remained chaotic as Ottawa police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, continued to search door-to-door in the area late Wednesday afternoon, but police would not say whether there is more than one shooter.
“This is a dynamic and unfolding situation,” said Gilles Michaud, commanding officer of the national division of the RCMP, at a news conference.
He also said that there was no indication beforehand of an attack, adding that it “caught us by surprise.”
Ottawa Civic Hospital confirmed that four victims arrived at the emergency department – the soldier who was pronounced dead, and three who are in stable condition, including a parliamentary guard who was shot in the foot, the CBC reported. But no other information on the shootings was given.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the attacks, and a separate attack in Quebec earlier this week, during a phone call with Harper on Wednesday, the White House said. Obama offered U.S. support in responding to the attacks during the call.
He told reporters during a press conference at the White House that the U.S. would do everything possible "to make sure that we’re standing side-by-side with Canada during this difficult time."
"We don’t yet have all the information about whether this was part of a broader network or plan, or whether this was an individual or a series of individuals who have decided to take these actions, but it emphasizes the degree to which we have to remain vigilant when it comes to dealing with these kinds of acts of senseless violence or terrorism," Obama said.
The Ottawa shooting comes two days after a pair of Canadian soldiers was attacked near Montreal. The soldiers were run down in a parking lot by a man who authorities later characterized as "radicalized."
The driver was shot and died at a hospital, as did one of the soldiers.
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