A major terror alert is ongoing in the Canadian capital Ottawa, with a gunman or possibly gunmen apparently on the loose in the Canadian parliament.
Shots were fired inside the parliament after a gunman was chased by police into its central block, in downtown Ottawa. It came after a Canadian soldier was shot and wounded at a war memorial nearby.
CBC TV has reported that a suspected gunman has been shot and killed inside the parliament buildings.
There have also been reports of a shooting at a shopping centre. The whole of downtown Ottawa is reported to be on lockdown.
At least one Member of Parliament has also reported that the gunman has been shot by police.
“Gunman at Parliament’s Centre Block has been shot and killed,” said Conservative MP Bernard Trottier on Twitter.
The report has not been officially confirmed.
“We are actively looking for suspects right now, so we don’t know if it is suspect one or suspects plural,” Ottawa Police Constable Marc Soucy told Reuters.
Some 30 more shots were fired inside the building, according to witnesses.
Parliament has been locked down and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has left the building.
There have been conflicting reports about the shots fired at parliament.
Earlier a Canadian soldier was shot at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
The soldier was wounded and has been taken to hospital.
The Canadian military has closed its bases to the public across the country, according to CBC TV.
Before Wednesday’s events, Canada raised its terrorism threat level to medium from low following a deadly attack on two soldiers in Quebec on Monday.
It was the first fatal attack on Canadian soil linked to Islamist militants and comes as six fighter jets left to join the fight against ISIL extremists in Iraq.
Earlier this month Canada announced plans to join the US-led campaign of air strikes.
(function(d, s, id) {var js,ijs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(d.getElementById(id))return;js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//embed.scribblelive.com/widgets/embed.js”;ijs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, ijs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘scrbbl-js’));
