Six folks from Sri Lanka, including a mom and 4 younger youngsters, have been knifed to demise in the Canadian capital Ottawa late on Wednesday, police stated on Thursday, rocking a rustic the place mass murders are uncommon.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated he was horrified by what he known as a “terrible tragedy.” The father of the household was additionally wounded in the assault and is in hospital.

Police stated Febrio De-Zoysa, a 19-year-old male scholar from Sri Lanka, had been arrested and charged with six counts of first diploma homicide and one depend of tried homicide. De-Zoysa knew the household and had been residing in the home, they stated.

The victims killed have been a 35-year-old lady and her youngsters aged 7, 4, 2 and a couple of months, in addition to a 40-year-old man who was an acquaintance of the household.

“This was a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people,” Ottawa police chief Eric Stubbs instructed a televised information convention. Police stated they’d had no earlier dealings with the suspect or the household.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, in a social media submit, stated it was “one of the most shocking incidents of violence in our city’s history”.

Ottawa, which has a inhabitants of 1 million, noticed 14 murders in 2023 and 15 in 2022.

Wednesday’s victims have been discovered inside a home in the southwestern suburb of Barrhaven. Police arrived on the scene following emergency calls shortly earlier than 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

Mass killings in Canada are rare. In December 2022, a person shot 5 folks in a Toronto suburb earlier than being gunned down by police.

In September that yr, a person stabbed and killed 11 folks in the western province of Saskatchewan. He died of a cocaine overdose shortly after being arrested.