Suspect charged after Vancouver car ramming leaves 11 dead
Vancouver Police Department said further charges are expected.
A 30-year-old man has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder after a car drove into a crowd at a street festival in Vancouver, Canada, leaving at least 11 people dead and dozens more injured.
Kai-Ji Adam Lo, a resident of the city, appeared in court late on Sunday and was returned to custody, Vancouver Police Department said, adding that further charges are expected.
Acting police chief Steve Rai described Saturday's attack at the Lapu Lapu Day festival, which was attended by up to 100,000 people, as the "darkest day in the city's history".
The identities of the victims are yet to be released by officials, but police said the ages of those killed ranged from five to 65.
Police said the suspect was known to them prior to the attack, but ruled out an extremist motive.
Organisers of the annual Lapu Lapu festival said the city's tight-knit Filipino community was "grieving" and the attack's impact will be felt for years to come.
The attack took place at around 20:14 local time on Saturday (03:14 GMT) at East 43rd Avenue and Fraser in the south of Vancouver.
Several eyewitnesses to Saturday's attack described the moment the black SUV ploughed into crowds.
"There's a car that went just through the whole street and just hitting everyone," Abigail Andiso, a local resident, told the Associated Press.
"I saw one dead, one man on the ground, and I went... towards the end where the car went, then there are more casualties, and you can see straight away there are about... maybe 20 people down, and everyone is panicking, everyone is screaming."
Lo was taken into custody by police officers after being detained by bystanders at the scene, police added.
At a separate news briefing on Sunday, Rai said: "The number of dead could rise in the coming days or weeks."
While Rai declined to specify any potential motive, he said that he "can now say with confidence that the evidence in this case does not lead us to believe this was an act of terrorism".
The suspect, he added, has "a significant history of interactions with police and healthcare professionals related to mental health".