Four members of a Muslim family died in Canada on Sunday after a 20-year-old Canadian citizen who was traveling in a van stepped onto a sidewalk and ran them over.
The attack on the Pakistani family, which police believe was "premeditated", occurred around 8:40 pm (local time) on public roads in the city of London, Ontario.
The only survivor is a 9-year-old boy who is seriously injured in a hospital.
The attacker was indicted with four counts of murder and one of attempted murder for the hit-and-run in Canada, a country where immigrants are widely accepted and which offers multiple work visa options to foreign workers each year.
A group of people gather to remember the Muslim family who was run over by a 20-year-old man in a "premeditated" attack, according to Canadian authorities Toronto Star via Getty Images
"This was a hate-motivated terrorist attack, in the heart of our communities," said First Justin Trudeau in Parliament. “If someone thinks that racism and hatred do not exist in this country, I want to tell them this: How do we explain such violence to a child in a hospital? How do we look families in the eye and say 'Islamophobia is not real'?
The fatal victims are two women, aged 74 and 44, a 46-year-old man and a 15-year-old adolescent.
Relatives identified them as
Salman Afzal
, 46;
his wife
Madiha
, 44;
his daughter
Yumna
, 15, and a 74-year-old grandmother whose name was not released.
The surviving child was identified as
Fayez
.
Friends said the family immigrated to Canada from Pakistan 14 years ago.
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"These victims are believed to have been targeted because they were Muslim," Detective Paul Waight told a news conference on Monday.
He added that the police are analyzing possible terrorism charges.
Authorities named the alleged attacker as Nathanial Veltman, 20, of London, Ontario.
The man was arrested in a shopping center about 6 kilometers from the crime scene.
It is not yet known if the suspect has ties to any hate groups.
The 9-year-old boy in the hospital has serious injuries but his life is not in danger, police said.Toronto Star via Getty Images
"There is no known prior connection between the suspect and the victims
," Waight said.
Mayor Ed Holder arranged for flags to fly at half mast for three days in London, which has between 30,000 and 40,000 Muslims among its more than 400,000 residents.
According to a 2016 census, this city, located about 200 kilometers southwest of Toronto, is becoming increasingly diverse.
One in five people was born outside of Canada, with Arabs being the largest minority group in the area followed by people from South Asia.
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Many Canadians have been enjoying nighttime walks after long days at home due to the pandemic, Trudeau said.
"But unlike any other night, this family did not come home," Trudeau said.
“Their lives were taken in a brutal, cowardly and brazen act of violence.
(...) Many Canadian Muslims are scared.
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On Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called the act a deliberate terrorist act against Muslims.
The senior official tweeted that Sunday's attack reveals growing Islamophobia in Western countries.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) said in a statement that the attacker should face terrorism charges.
"A man allegedly got into his car, saw a Muslim family walking down the street and made the decision that they do not deserve to live," described the organization's executive director, Mustafa Farooq.
"He did not know them.
This is a terrorist attack on Canadian soil and should be treated as such,
" he continued in his statement.
With information from The Associated Press