Canada mass stabbings kill, wound many

A series of stabbings in two communities in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan has left at least 10 people dead and 15 wounded. Police are looking for two suspects.

The stabbings on Sunday took place in multiple locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon, police said.

Rhonda Blackmore, the Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP Saskatchewan, said some of the victims appear to have been targeted by the suspects but others appear to have been attacked at random. She couldn't provide a motive.

“It is horrific what has occurred in our province today,” Blackmore said. She said there are 13 crime scenes where either deceased 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.

“If in the Regina area, take precautions & consider sheltering in place. 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,” the RCMP said in a message on Twitter.

The search for suspects was carried out as fans descended in Regina for a sold-out annual Labor Day game between the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Regina Police Service said in a news release that with the help of Mounties, it was working 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.″

Suspects are at large

The alert first issued by Melfort, Saskatchewan RCMP about 7 am was extended hours later to cover Manitoba and Alberta, as the two suspects remained at large.

Damien Sanderson was described as 1.7 metres tall and 70 kg, and Myles Sanderson as 1.8 metres and 91 kg. Both have black hair and brown eyes and may be driving a black Nissan Rogue.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority said multiple patients were being treated at several sites.

“A call for additional staff was issued to respond to the influx of casualties,” authority spokeswoman Anne Linnemann 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 southeast of Weldon.

Oddan said due to privacy laws, he could not disclose information about their ages, genders or conditions.