Multiple people were reportedly killed after a gunmen opened fire in a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers, according to the mosque’s president on Sunday.
An eyewitness told Reuters that they saw a heavily armed tactical police entering the mosque. Another witness says that up to three gunman fired on about 40 people inside the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center. Police put up a security perimeter around the mosque, but declined to speak with reporters about the incident.
"Why is this happening here? This is barbaric," said the mosque's president, Mohamed Yangui.
Police said via Twitter that they have been “deaths and injuries” and at least two people have been arrested. However, police have not announced the specific number of deaths or confirmed the severity of injuries.
Incidents of Islamophobia increased in Quebec in recent years. In June 2016, someone left a pig’s head outside the doorstep of the mosque.
