Multiple deaths reported after shooting in Quebec City mosque
Les Perreaux
The Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017 9:49PM EST
Last updated Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017 10:34PM EST
Two men are in custody and suspected of murder after a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, police say.
A police spokesman reported a number of casualties in the shooting, including deaths. He would not give a breakdown saying the police operation was still underway.
The spokesman reported officers received a call Sunday evening about shots being fired at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center.
Gunmen opened fire in 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 mosque. Police put up a security perimeter around the centre and declined to comment to reporters about the incident.
“Why is this happening here? This is barbaric,” said the mosque’s president, Mohamed Yangui.
In June, 2016, a pig’s head was left on the doorstep of the cultural centre.
Mr. 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.
Incidents of Islamophobia increased in Quebec in recent years amid a political debate over banning the niqab, or Muslim face covering. In 2013, police investigated after a mosque in the Saguenay region of Quebec was splattered with what was believed to be pig blood.
In Ontario, a mosque was set on fire in 2015, a day after an attack by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris.