Canada: police say 10 killed and 15 hurt in Saskatchewan stabbings

Ten people have been killed after a spate of stabbings in 13 locations in two communities in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Police were searching for two suspects.

Fifteen people had been taken 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.

Rhonda Blackmore, the assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted police in Saskatchewan, said some of the victims appear to have been targeted by the suspects but others appear to have been attacked at random. She did not provide a motive.

Damien Sanderson, left, and Myles Sanderson are being sought by police in connection with the stabbings. Photograph: Royal Canadian Mounted Police/EPA

“It is horrific what has occurred in our province today,” Blackmore said.

She said there were 13 crime scenes where either dead or injured people were found.

Police said the last information they had from the public was that the suspects were sighted in Saskatchewan’s capital of Regina around lunchtime. There have been no sightings since.

“If in the Regina area, take precautions & consider sheltering in place,” the RCMP said in a message on Twitter. “Do not leave a secure location. DO NOT APPROACH suspicious persons. Do not pick up hitchhikers. Report suspicious persons, emergencies or info to 9-1-1. Do not disclose police locations.”

A Weldon resident, Diane Shier, said she was in her garden on Sunday morning when she noticed emergency crews a couple of blocks away.

Shier said her neighbor, a man who lived with his grandson, had been killed. “I am very upset because I lost a good neighbor,” she said.

The search for suspects was waged as fans enjoying the Labor Day long weekend 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 (RCMP) 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 RCMP 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.