Police are investigating after a shooting at Canada’s largest Latin street festival in Toronto on Saturday left two people dead and several others injured.
Six people were shot and killed, police said, and the suspect remains at large.
CTV footage showed festivalgoers running down the sidewalk from the yellow-tape area as dozens of black police SUVs, patrol cars, heavily armored vehicles and ambulances sped toward the scene.
Police said they had secured the scene about an hour after the active shooting began, but organizers said they continued to urge people to stay away from the city’s midtown area, where the multi-day Salsa on St. Clair festival celebrating Latin culture has been held annually for 22 years.
CNN has reached out to festival organizers, police and city officials for comment.
Although deadly gun violence is less common in Canada than it is in the United States, it still devastates communities.
Less than three weeks later, another mass shooting devastated the country when a gunman opened fire in Montreal. Two people were killed in the ensuing gunfight with police in broad daylight, making it the first Montreal police officer killed in the line of duty in 20 years.
The shooting occurred in a country with far stricter gun laws than the United States, where mass shootings are rare. After Canada’s deadliest mass shooting in 2020, which left 22 people dead in Nova Scotia, the government enacted major reforms and implemented a ban on assault-style weapons.
This story has been updated with additional information.
