Two children have died and six others are injured after a man drove a bus into a Laval, Quebec, daycare today.
Police arrested the 51-year-old man who had been an employee of the Société de transport de Laval (STL) for 10 years. The man, Pierre Ny St-Amand, is facing reckless driving and homicide charges. He doesn’t have any prior incidents on his record.
Erika Landry, the STL’s spokesperson, said that they were not certain of the motive and have not yet ruled out the possibility that the driver may have crashed the bus deliberately.
The daycare is located at the end of a driveway on a road, which isn’t a part of any of the STL routes.
One child died at the scene, while the other was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Six other children were also taken to the hospital though their injuries are not life-threatening.
The crash happened at around 8:30 a.m. and several parents subdued the driver who had torn off all his clothes and exited the bus naked.
Hamdi Ben Chaabane, who lives in the neighbourhood, explained to CBC News what he had seen.
“From what I saw, it wasn’t an accident,” he told reporters. “He opened the door. He took off all his clothes. He was totally naked. We don’t know why he did that. We dove on him. We tried to subdue him.”
Quebec Premier Francois Legault took to Twitter to offer his condolences and support to the families affected.
“What a terrible tragedy this morning in Laval,” he wrote in French. “There is nothing worse than being afraid for your child. I am thinking of children, parents and employees.”
In a separate pair of tweets, Legault added that he and opposition leaders would visit Laval on Thursday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also offered his condolences on Twitter.
The STL released a statement on their social media accounts offering their condolences and expressing their shock and devastation about the tragic events.
“The STL is devastated by the tragedy that occurred this morning in Laval. Our hearts go out to the families and employees affected by this tragedy [...]” the organization wrote. “We are living in times of untold sadness.”
The STL concluded by saying it could not offer any more comments due to the nature of the ongoing investigation.
