There’s been an attack inside the Parliament building in Ottawa, the CBC reports.
Parliament Hill came under attack today after a man with a rifle shot a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa,before seizing a car and driving to the doors of Parliament Hill’s Centre Block nearby.
MPs and other witnesses reported several shots fired inside Parliament, and a gunman has been confirmed dead inside the building, shot by the House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms, according to MPs’ eyewitness accounts.
There’s perhaps another shooter at large in downtown Ottawa.
Ottawa police confirmed shots were also fired in three locations: the war memorial, inside Centre Block and near the Rideau Centre east of Parliament Hill, although earlier reports of shots inside the shopping mall have been denied by police. The downtown area remains in police lockdown.
Yikes. I’ve been there. I have friends in Ottawa.
The soldier shot at the War Memorial has died.
It’s standard procedure to come up with something all we’ll-tough-it-out or somethin’ to say, is my understanding. Think I’m gonna pass. That wasn’t my child got shot.
We’re all good here, anyway, I guess.
Safe in the suburbs, here. Waiting for the usual media OMG-lets-interview-everyone-within-a-10-block-radius-and-report-every-rumour-and-speculation bullshit to die down so we can find out what really went down. Sucks about the soldier, though.
In the mean time: Keep Calm And Carry On.
Here in Seattle it’s just raining…
Of note, Malala Yousafzai was in Ottawa today to become an Honorary Canadian citizen.
The ceremony was cancelled as a result of the attack.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/malala-yousafzai-s-honorary-canadian-citizenship-ceremony-cancelled-pmo-1.2065149
Oh, wow.
Actually, the event with Malala was supposed to be in Toronto.
CBC did a pretty good job of covering the story.
I was looking at a map of where this happened and realized I’d been RIGHT THERE 2 years ago. Went to a conference at the Ottawa convention center in 2012, and we attended a Canada Day light show celebration at Parliament Hill. So sad this happened.
@7: What, the other media were worse? (Actually, they probably were). The CBC did a decent job of reporting information as they got it, but they *still* had to do the usual filling of air time with person-on-the-street-saw-man-run-past fluff which tells you precisely nothing, but I guess adds that “human interest” element — or maybe just makes you feel like you were there, so you can be properly frightened.
Sorry, but I find media coverage of stuff like this to have an appallingly low signal-to-noise ratio. Pet peeve.