Canada stabbings: ‘Horrific and heartbreaking', says Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a mass stabbing that left at least 10 people dead and 15 injured in Saskatchewan province on Sunday "horrific and heartbreaking."

"The attacks in Saskatchewan today are horrific and heartbreaking," he tweeted. "I'm thinking of those who have lost a loved one and of those who were injured."

The series of stabbings at an Indigenous community and in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan left 10 people dead and 15 wounded, Canadian police said Sunday as they searched for two suspects, reported Mint.

The stabbings took place in multiple locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon, police said.

Rhonda Blackmore, the Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP Saskatchewan, said some of the victims appear to have been targeted by the suspects but others appear to have been attacked at random. She couldn't provide a motive.

"It is horrific what has occurred in our province today," Blackmore said.

She said there are 13 crime scenes where either deceased or injured people were found. She urged the suspects to turn themselves in.

Blackmore said police began receiving reports before 6 a.m. of stabbings on the First Nation community. More reports of attacks quickly followed and by midday police issued a warning that a vehicle reportedly carrying the two suspects had been spotted in Regina.

Police said the last information they had from the public was that the suspects were sighted in Saskatchewan's capital of Regina around lunchtime. There have been so many sightings since.

"If in the Regina area, take precautions & consider sheltering in place. Do not leave a secure location. DO NOT APPROACH suspicious persons. Do not pick up hitch hikers. Report suspicious persons, emergencies or info to 9-1-1. Do not disclose police locations," the RCMP said in a message on Twitter.

Doreen Lees, an 89-year grandmother from Weldon, said she and her daughter thought they saw one of the suspects when a car came barreling down her street early in the morning as her daughter was having coffee on her deck. Lees said a man approached them and said he was hurt and needed help.

But Lees said the man took off and ran after her daughter said she would call for help.

"He wouldn't show his face. He had a big jacket over his face. We asked his name and he kind of mumbled his name twice and we still couldn't get it," she said. "He said his face was injured so bad he couldn't show it."

She said the man was by himself and "kind a little wobbly."

"I followed him a little ways to see if he was going to be OK. My daughter said 'Don't follow him, get back here.'"

Weldon resident Diane Shier said she was in her garden Sunday morning when she noticed emergency crews a couple of blocks away.

Shier said her neighbor was killed. She did not want to identify the victim out of respect for his family.

"I am very upset because I lost a good neighbor," she said.

The search for suspects was carried out as fans descended in Regina for a sold out annual Labor Day game between the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Regina Police Service said in a news release that with the help of Mounties, it was working on several fronts to locate and arrest the suspects and had "deployed additional resources for public safety throughout the city, including the football game at Mosaic Stadium.″

The alert first issued by Melfort, Saskatchewan RCMP about 7 am was extended hours later to cover Manitoba and Alberta, as the two suspects remained at large.

Damien Sanderson, 31, was described as five feet seven inches tall and 155 pounds, and Myles Sanderson, 30, as six-foot-one and 200 pounds. Both have black hair and brown eyes and may be driving a black Nissan Rogue.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority said multiple patients were being treated at several sites.

The attacks in Saskatchewan today are horrific and heartbreaking. I'm thinking of those who have lost a loved one and of those who were injured.

The stabbings were certain to reverberate throughout Canada, which is unaccustomed to bouts of mass violence more commonly seen across the southern border in the United States.

"There are no words to adequately describe the pain and loss caused by this senseless violence. All of Saskatchewan grieves with the victims and their families," Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said on Twitter.

The stabbings were reported early in the morning, and at 8:20 a.m. local time police issued a province-wide dangerous persons alert. By the afternoon, similar alerts were also issued in Saskatchewan's neighboring provinces Alberta and Manitoba.