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At least 5 dead in Quebec City mosque shooting, 2 suspects arrested
REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger
QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - Five people were killed after gunmen opened fire in a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers, the mosque's president told reporters on Sunday.
Earlier, a witness told Reuters that up to three gunmen fired on about 40 people inside the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center.
Quebec police confirmed the shooting at a Quebec mosque in a tweet, and police on the scene said there had been fatalities.
"There are many victims ... there are deaths," a Quebec police spokesman told reporters.
A police tweet said there were deaths and injuries and that two suspects had been arrested.
Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/825900788857843712
Le SPVQ confirme qu'il y a des dècès et des blessés,des suspects ont été arrêtés, plus de détails à venir.
But police aren't ruling out the possibility of a third suspect, according to CBC News.
Local paper Le Soleil reported that one of the suspects was armed with an AK-47. A gunman managed to reload his gun three times and was able to move from the ground to the first floor, according to local newspaper Le Devoir.
An anonymous witness told CBC's Radio-Canada that two individuals entered the mosque wearing masks.
"It seemed to me that they had a Quebecois accent," he said. "They started to fire, and as they shot they yelled, 'Allahu akbar!' The bullets hit people that were praying. People who were praying lost their lives. A bullet passed right over my head."
The mosque's Facebook page showed several live videos of the crime scene:
"Why is this happening here? This is barbaric,” said the mosque's president, Mohamed Yangui.
Yangui, who was not inside the mosque when the shooting occurred, said he got 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.
Rising Islamophobia
REUTERS/Mathieu BelangerIn June 2016, there was a pig's head left on the mosque's doorstep with a note that read, "Bonne appetit," The Star reported. Many Muslims do not eat pork, and local police were investigating the incident.
Like France, Quebec has struggled at times to reconcile its secular identity with a rising Muslim population, many of them North African emigrants.
The face-covering, or niqab, became a big issue in the 2015 national Canadian election, especially in Quebec, where the vast majority of the population supported a ban on it at citizenship ceremonies.
Incidents of Islamophobia have increased in Quebec in recent years. In 2013, police investigated after a mosque in the Saguenay region of Quebec was splattered with what was believed to be pig blood.
In the neighboring province of Ontario, a mosque was set on fire in 2015, a day after an attack by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris.
Canadian leaders offer condolences
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard condemned the "barbaric violence" on Twitter, saying he stood united with the families of the victims.
Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/825901892115058688
Le #Québec rejette catégoriquement cette violence barbare. Toute notre solidarité aux proches des victimes, des blessés et à leur famille.Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/825905658520301568
Unissons-nous contre la violence. Solidarité avec les Québécois de confession musulmane.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered his condolences on Twitter, as well:
Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/825910196077723648
Tonight, Canadians grieve for those killed in a cowardly attack on a mosque in Quebec City. My thoughts are with victims & their families.
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