Canada 'will never be intimidated'

Two deadly attacks in three days against members of the military have stunned Canadians and raised fears their country was being targeted for reprisals for joining the US-led air campaign against an extremist Islamic group in Iraq and Syria.

 

"We will not be intimidated. Canada will never be intimidated," Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed in a nationally televised address hours after a masked gunman killed a soldier standing guard at Ottawa's National War Memorial shortly before 10am yesterday.

The suspect then stormed the Canadian parliament in a dramatic attack that was stopped cold when he was shot to death by the ceremonial sergeant-at-arms.
Mr Harper called it the country's second terrorist attack in three days.

A man Mr Harper described as an "Isil-inspired terrorist" on Monday ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring another before being shot to death by police. Like the suspect from the shooting in Ottawa, he was a recent convert to Islam.

Investigators offered little information about the gunman in Ottawa, identified as 32-year-old petty criminal Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. But the prime minister said: "In the days to come we will learn about the terrorist and any accomplices he may have had."

Witnesses said the soldier posted at the National War Memorial, identified as Corporal Nathan Cirillo, was gunned down at point-blank range by a man carrying a rifle and dressed all in black, his face half-covered with a scarf.

 

The gunman appeared to raise his arms in triumph, then entered parliament, a few hundred yards away, where dozens of shots soon rang out, according to witnesses.

People fled the complex by scrambling down scaffolding erected for renovations, while others took cover inside as police with rifles and body armour took up positions outside and cordoned off the normally bustling streets around parliament.

On Twitter, Canada's justice minister and other government officials credited 58-year-old sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers with shooting the attacker just outside the MPs' caucus rooms.

Mr Vickers serves a largely ceremonial role at the House of Commons, carrying a sceptre and wearing rich green robes, white gloves and a tall imperial hat.