One of the suspects in the killing of 10 people in a series of stabbings has been found dead, and his injuries are not self inflicted, Canadian police have said.
They said his brother, also a suspect, may be injured and remains on the run.
Regina police chief Evan Bray said Damien Sanderson, 31, had been found dead and that they believe Myles Sanderson, 30, is in Regina, Saskatchewan.
The men are suspected of killing 10 people in a series of stabbings in an indigenous community and a nearby town.
A massive manhunt for the perpetrators of one of the deadliest attacks in the nation’s history had stretched into a second day.
Authorities have said some of the victims were targeted and others appeared to have been chosen at random on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the town of Weldon in Saskatchewan province.
They have given no motive for the crimes, which also left 18 people injured, but a senior indigenous leader suggested drugs were somehow involved.
Fear gripped communities in the rural, working class area of Saskatchewan surrounded by farmland that were terrorised by the crimes.
One witness who said he lost family members described seeing people with bloody wounds scattered throughout the indigenous reserve.
“No-one in this town is ever going to sleep again. They’re going to be terrified to open their door,” said Ruby Works, who also lost someone close to her and is a resident of Weldon, which has a population of about 200 and is home to many pensioners.
As the Labour Day holiday weekend drew to a close on Monday, police had urged Saskatchewan residents who were returning from trips away to look for suspicious activity around their homes before entering.
The stabbing attack was among the deadliest mass killings in Canada, where such crimes are less common than in the United States.
The deadliest gun rampage in Canadian history happened in 2020, when a man disguised as a police officer shot people in their homes and set fires across the province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people.
In 2019, a man used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto.
“It is horrific what has occurred in our province,” said Rhonda Blackmore, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan.
The chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations suggested the stabbings could be drug-related.
“This is the destruction we face when harmful illegal drugs invade our communities, and we demand all authorities to take direction from the chiefs and councils and their membership to create safer and healthier communities for our people,” said chief Bobby Cameron.
The elected leaders of the three communities that make up the James Smith Cree Nation declared a local state of emergency.
Chakastaypasin chief Calvin Sanderson, who apparently is not related to the suspects, said everyone has been affected by the tragic events.
“They were our relatives, friends,” Sanderson said of the victims. “It’s pretty horrific.”
Prime minister Justin Trudeau said the flag above Canada’s parliament building in Ottawa would be flown at half-mast.
“Sadly, over these past years, tragedies like these have become all too common place.
“Saskatchewanians and Canadians will do what we always do in times of difficulty and anguish, we will be there for each other,” Mr Trudeau said.
