Authorities in Ottawa said late Saturday at least two people were fatally shot in a parking lot leaving six other people injured during a reception, triggering chaos as wedding attendees rushed to find a safe place to hide.
"It was chaos, there was no general direction of where people were running, it was just everywhere," a person who came to pick up his friend at the wedding, told AFP.
There were two weddings taking place when gunfire erupted outside.
"It was rapid shots, and then there was screaming, and then there was a pause, and then there were more shots, probably 15-16 more shots that I can recall," he said.
The fatal shooting started at 10:21pm Saturday (0221 GMT Sunday) in the parking lot of a south-end convention hall where two separate wedding receptions were being held simultaneously.
Police "said to stay in our vehicles. We could not leave the scene," the witness said.
Ottawa police confirmed that fatalities were of two men, aged 26 and 29, both from Toronto, Canada's largest city.
According to the police, Americans were among the six wounded but their lives were not in danger. Their identities were not immediately released.
"We are in the process of connecting the pieces of the puzzle," Martin Groulx, police inspector, told AFP about the ongoing investigation.
He said police had no sign for now to suggest the shooting was a hate crime "related to race or religious beliefs."
"But we do not eliminate this option," he added, specifying that the investigation had yet to determine a motive.
As of Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been made.
The two deaths from the shooting bring to 12 the number of homicides recorded in 2023 in Ottawa, Canada´s capital, which has a population of about one million.
Several Canadian cities have seen a marked increase in armed violence in recent years with increasingly frequent shootings, according to the Canadian government.
Since 2009, the country has seen an 81% increase in violent gun crime.
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