An 18-year-old woman has died and seven other people have been injured in a mass stabbing at a remote indigenous community in Canada, police say.
The suspect also died in Thursday’s attack at a First Nations community in the province of Manitoba, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The incident took place in Hollow Water First Nation, about 200km (124 miles) north-east of the city of Winnipeg.
Police said the suspect was fleeing the scene when he died in a vehicle collision with an RCMP policewoman, who was critically injured.
The family of one victim said he was awoken in the middle of the night, and was stabbed in the torso.
Investigators said the woman killed was the sister of the suspect, and that the man was previously “known to police”.
In a news conference, the federal police force said that officers were on site at the Hollow Water First Nation, and were “still going house to house to make sure that the community is safe and also ensuring that there are no other victims”.
“Our sincere condolences to everyone within the community of Hollow Water First Nation and to everyone who has been affected by this senseless act of violence,” the RCMP said.
Police said they were first called to the community at 03:45 local time on Thursday, after a tribal security officer reported an assault had taken place 30 minutes earlier.
When police arrived, they were alerted to a second crime scene. Stabbing victims were located at both locations, according to investigators.
RCMP major crimes unit Supt Rob Lasson declined to share any suspected motive for the attack, but said the “victims were all known to each other in the community”.
The suspect, Tyrone Simard, 26, fled in a stolen car and appears to have been heading towards Winnipeg when he collided with the police vehicle.
The policewoman, who has not been named, was taken to hospital with “critical but non-life-threatening injuries”, according to Lasson, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew praised the police officer, saying: “She stopped a man on a rampage.”
Chief of Hollow Water First Nation Larry Barker also spoke at the news conference, his voice cracking with emotion.
“I ask the community to pray and support one another out there,” Chief Barker said.
“The families were very close to me, and my deepest condolences to them,” he continued.
The Anishinaabe community has a population of a few hundred people.
One of those injured in the attack was identified by family members as Michael Raven, according to CBC News.
His children said that he was stabbed in the lung by someone who broke into his home while he was asleep.
“The community is all shaken up from it. It is not something that happens in Hollow Water,” his daughter, Christy Williams, told CBC.
The attack happened on the third anniversary of a mass stabbing in James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby village of Weldon, in the province of Saskatchewan, in which 11 people were killed and many more injured.
The suspect in that stabbing died shortly after police arrested him following a three-day manhunt.
