Ten people have been killed after stabbings in 13 locations in two communities in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Police were searching for two suspects.
Fifteen people had been sent to hospital after stabbings in multiple locations on Sunday in the James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon, north-east of Saskatoon, police said.
Early indications suggested the victims may have been attacked at random, but police had not provided a possible motive.
The search for suspects was waged as fans descended on Regina for a sold-out Canadian Football League game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Regina police said that with the help of the Royal Canadian Mounted police they were investigating 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 Mounties in Melfort, Saskatchewan at about 7am was extended hours later to cover Manitoba and Alberta, as the two suspects remained at large.
Damien Sanderson was described as 5ft 7in and 155lb, and Myles Sanderson as 6ft 1in and 200lb. Both were said to have black hair and brown eyes and possibly to be driving a black Nissan Rogue.
The Saskatchewan health authority said patients were being treated at several sites.
“A call for additional staff was issued to respond to the influx of casualties,” a spokesperson, Anne Linemann, said in an email.
Mark Oddan, a spokesman with Stars Air Ambulance, said two helicopters were dispatched from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and another from Regina.
Oddan said two carried patients from the scene to Royal University hospital in Saskatoon, while the third carried a patient to Royal University from a hospital in Melfort, a short distance south-east of Weldon.
Oddan said due to privacy laws, he could not disclose information about their ages, genders or conditions.
