April 27 (UPI) -- The death toll rose to 11 by late Sunday after a driver plowed through a crowd at a street festival in the Canadian city of Vancouver late Saturday night, police said. Dozens more were injured.
"This is the darkest day in our city history," interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai said at a live-streamed news conference Sunday afternoon.
"The actions of a single person shattered our collective sense of safety. It is impossible to overstate how many lives have been impacted forever by this lone individual."
Initially, nine people had been confirmed dead after a man drove through a crowd at last night's Lapu Lapu Festival, the Vancouver Police Department said in a statement on social media. The death toll rose to 11 later in the day.
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"It's hard to make sense of something so senseless," Rai added.
The driver, a 30-year-old man who has not been officially named, drove his black Audi SUV through the Lapu Lapu Festival around 8 p.m. on Saturday and was taken into custody.
"At this time, we are confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism," police said in an earlier statement Sunday.
At the afternoon news conference, Rai clarified that the incident was a "crime" while the motive remained unclear. The ages of the 11 victims ranged from 5 to 65, Rai said.
The Lapu Lapu Festival is a Filipino block party that honors Lapu-Lapu, the chieftain who led native forces in the defeat of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan at the Battle of Mactan in 1521, marking the first act of Filipino resistance to colonization.
The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver has set up a hotline for affected nationals and called the incident "horrific" while it was awaiting more information on what occurred.
Phillipine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos expressed his sympathies to the families of the victims of the incident and the "thriving Filipino community in Canada," according to the Philippine Star newspaper.
"We are one with the families of the victims and the Filipino community in Vancouver during this difficult time," he said.
With terrorism ruled out, the cause of the incident remains unclear. It was not clear late Sunday what charges the driver may face.