In what has been called the “worst act of mass murder the country has ever seen,” Canada is reeling from a rampaging gunman who killed 16 people over the course of 12 hours before being killed by police.
The shootings occurred mainly in the small rural town of Portapique in Nova Scotia, but incidents were reported in several locations across the province.
The gunman, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, has started on Saturday night when several bodies were found inside a home in Portapique and several houses were set on fire.
The trail of destruction led across several other locations including Enfield and a police officer is among the deceased.
A manhunt that spanned several communities and 12 hours ended with the police shooting and killing the suspect.
It is reported that the man was driving a police car and wearing a uniform, however, later reports indicate he was driving a Chevrolet sports utility vehicle.
The massacre is one of the worst of its kind since a gunman killed 15 women in Montreal in December 1989. Mass shootings such as this are extremely rare in Canada which has tighter gun control laws than the United States.
Investigations into the motives of the suspect and the scale of the destruction are still ongoing.
Source: The Guardian | Photo: Reuters
