Canada: 10 dead by Van plowing at Toronto sidewalk

Ten persons have died while 16 were injured after a driver ploughed his van into a crowd in Toronto. The driver has been taken into custody. The incident occurred on Monday afternoon as large crowds of office workers were on lunch breaks. The driver has been identified as one Alek Minassian, 25, a resident of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

One witness described the driver as appearing to deliberately target the victims on his one-mile long rampage. It is however not clear whether the act was a deliberate one or a traffic mishap.

Police said the actions "definitely looked deliberate" but they don't know what motivation was behind it

The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point," the police said. The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved."

The incident brings back memories of a string of deadly vehicle attacks in the United States and Europe including one that killed 8 people in New York on October 31. The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for those attacks.