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One person was killed and four others injured when a vehicle crashed into a drop-in centre in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday morning.
The crash happened around 9 a.m. at the corner of Rideau and Cobourg streets, police said.
Ottawa police said four pedestrians were struck including a man in his 70s who paramedics said suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital in critical condition. Police said late Wednesday morning that he had died.
Paramedics said two other men were seriously injured and also taken to hospital in critical condition, but their injuries are not deemed life-threatening. The fourth pedestrian, a woman, was taken to hospital in stable condition.
Paramedics said the man who was driving the SUV was also injured and taken to hospital in stable condition.
Ottawa police said early Wednesday afternoon that they hadn’t yet determined the cause of the crash.
Ottawa police, paramedics and firefighters describe their response to a deadly crash downtown.
It was snowing in Ottawa at the time of the collision, and Environment Canada had issued a special weather statement.
“I heard something like ‘boom,’ something crazy. I went outside and saw the car,” said Safouane Elattari, who works at a nearby restaurant.
‘Everyone is quite shaken up’
The website for the Capital City Mission drop-in centre for vulnerable people says it opens at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays for food, coffee and warm clothes.
In a statement to CBC, the organization said it was in “grieving the tragic incident [in which] a vehicle struck multiple individuals at the entrance of our building on Rideau Street.”
“Each of the people injured today was a beloved member of the Capital City Mission community,” the statement said.
“I think everyone is quite shaken up,” added Anna Vogt, the mission’s board chair, in an interview.
Staff are trying to figure out the best way to support the mission community, as the drop-in centre was “quite damaged” and “as of right now, there’s no one in the building,” Vogt said.
“[We’re] still waiting for [an] assessment of when it’s actually going to be safe to enter the building again,” she said.
A vehicle crashed into a downtown Ottawa drop-in centre. CBC spoke with people in the neighbourhood who saw and heard the crash.
The damaged vehicle was towed from the scene around 12:15 p.m.
Ottawa Fire Services spokesperson Nick DeFazio told reporters early Wednesday afternoon that the department’s specialized structural collapse team will need to reinforce the building after police are done at the scene.
Rideau Street was closed in the area until around 2 p.m.
