Eight people killed, including two children

In a family drama, eight people, including two children, were killed in Edmonton, western Canada, and the killer, known to police for violence, killed himself on Tuesday, reports the news agency Patria.

A depressed person, with financial problems and a criminal record, first shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in a house south of that city, which has just under a million residents in the oil-rich province of Alberta.

The man then headed north of the city where he "deliberately and intentionally" killed seven more people, police chief Rod Knecht told reporters on Tuesday evening. Among the seven bodies were two children "under the age of 10", three women and two men aged between 25 and 50. All individuals are of Vietnamese origin, according to local media.

"This is a tragic day for Edmonton with this senseless multiple murder of eight people," he emphasized, noting from memory that this is the worst murder in Edmonton since a sextuple murder committed in 1956.

Thanks to elements established at the scene and witnesses, investigators identified the perpetrator of the family drama and found in Fort Saskatchewan, a town 30 km northeast of Edmonton, a car "that matched the description given after the first murder," the police chief said.

Security forces were then deployed around a Vietnamese restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan where the suspect "had business interests," according to Knecht.

In the restaurant, investigators found a "dead body." "It appeared to be a suicide" and the identity of the person matched the one police had been "trying to locate" since Monday evening, Rod Knecht said.

The murder weapon, a 9 mm caliber pistol, was "legally registered" in the neighboring province of British Columbia in 1997 and reported stolen in 2006.