Toronto: Suspect charged with murder after 10 pedestrians killed

Alek Minassian (Below) was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. Pic/AFP

A van driver who ran over 10 people when he ploughed onto a busy Toronto sidewalk was charged with murder, as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged a rattled nation not to live in fear after the "senseless attack."

Police said the suspect, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, was not known to them before Monday's carnage in Canada's most populous city, which also left 15 people injured.

He also was not in the crosshairs of intelligence and security agencies, leading Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to sideline the theory of a terror attack such as those carried out by extremists in London, Nice and other major cities.

"On the basis of all available information at the present time, there would appear to be no national security connection to this particular incident," Goodale said. But authorities said the incident during the busy lunch hour Monday was undoubtedly deliberate, and Minassian - his head shaved, and in a white police jumpsuit - was charged with first degree murder in a brief court appearance.

He also faces multiple counts of attempted murder over those injured in the incident. Two South Koreans were among the dead, a foreign ministry official in Seoul said, adding that another of the country's citizens seriously injured.

As the wounded recovered in local hospitals, federal, provincial and local investigators were probing the case, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said. "Canadians across the country are shocked and saddened by this senseless attack," Trudeau told a news conference.

But, he added: "We must not start living in fear and uncertainty every day as we go about our daily lives." Students who attended a Toronto vocational school with Minassian described him as withdrawn and a bit awkward.

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