The attack at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center came as worshippers attended evening prayers. Police Sgt. Christine Coulombe said 39 people escaped the shooting in the capital of the French-speaking eastern Canadian province.<\/p>\n
The victims were aged 35 to 70, she added. Some of the wounded are in critical condition.<\/p>\n
Police also said two suspects had been arrested, broadcaster CBC News reported.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the province\u2019s Premier Philippe Couillard described the incident in the Sainte-Foy neighborhood as an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge,\u201d Trudeau said in a statement. He added that Muslim-Canadians were \u201can important part of our national fabric and these senseless acts have no place in our communities, cities and country.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a tweet, Couillard added: \u201cQuebec categorically rejects this barbaric violence. All our solidarity is with the relatives of the victims, the wounded and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the provincial flag would be flown at half-mast following the attack and, speaking at a news conference, condemned the \u201cmurderous act directed at a specific community\u201d.<\/p>\n
The attack started at around 8 p.m. Sunday local time (0100GMT Monday) when two masked suspects entered the mosque and started shooting, according to a witness who spoke to CBC\u2019s French-language service radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey started to fire and as they shot they yelled, \u2018Allahu akbar\u2019,\u201d the witness said. \u201cThe bullets hit people that were praying. People who were praying lost their lives. A bullet passed right over my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were even kids. There was even a three-year-old who was with his father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police said the situation was under control by 10:40 p.m. (0340GMT).<\/p>\n
In a message on Facebook, the mosque called on people to await the preliminary results of the investigation before spreading rumors. \u201cThe situation is very critical but God willing we\u2019re ready to endure it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mosque\u2019s president, Mohamed Yangui, was not inside when the shooting happened but said he received panicked telephone calls during and after the attack. \u201cWhy is this happening here? This is barbaric,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tweeted that he was saddened by the deaths and his office said no motive had been confirmed.<\/p>\n
The attack came amid widespread protests across the U.S. and elsewhere against President Donald Trump\u2019s order banning immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.<\/p>\n
Quebec has witnessed a number of Islamophobic incidents in recent months. In June, a pig\u2019s head was left at the mosque\u2019s door with a note reading \u201cBon appetit\u201d during Islam\u2019s holy month of Ramadan. The consumption of pork is prohibited for Muslims.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 14)<\/span>\n Anadolu Agency<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Six people were killed and eight wounded in a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City late Sunday, police said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63],"tags":[3748,23635],"class_list":["post-58577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","tag-canada","tag-quebec-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}