It\u2019s unclear if it was an attack, but one police source reportedly says it was deliberate.<\/b>
\nA man driving a white van plowed through a crowd of pedestrians in downtown Toronto on Monday afternoon, killing at least nine and injuring at least 16.
The driver sped down sidewalks at 40 miles per hour and traveled between a half-mile and a mile before being stopped by authorities and taken into custody .
Canadian officials have yet to say whether they believe it was a terror attack, but a law enforcement official briefed on the situation told CNN that the act was deliberate. Trucks have become a terrorist weapon of choice in cities including New York, where eight were killed last October, and Nice, where 86 people were killed in 2016.
John Flengas, the acting emergency medical services supervisor for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, which has received several victims from the incident, described the scene to CTV News as \u201c pure carnage .\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s unprecedented. We\u2019ve never seen anything like this in Toronto up until now,\u201d he said, according to the Globe and Mail. \u201cWe never thought this would happen here.\u201d
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement expressing condolences for the victims on Monday afternoon. \u201cOur hearts go out to anyone affected. We\u2019re obviously going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours,\u201d he said.
According to a witness, the van\u2019s driver pointed what appeared to be a gun at a police officer before being taken into custody.
Although police have not commented on whether or not the driver has any affiliation with a group such as ISIS, the method of attack resembles other ISIS-directed and inspired attacks around the world in recent years.
These kinds of attacks are notoriously difficult to prevent because it\u2019s difficult for authorities to prevent an individual working alone from using an everyday vehicle as a weapon. Indeed, that\u2019s in large part why terror groups \u2014 particularly ISIS \u2014 encourage their followers to use this method of attack.<\/p>\n

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