Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre – five dead after mosque shootings

The number of deaths following a shooting incident at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec, Canada has been reported at five by Reuters. The shooting happened during evening prayers and resulted in multiple fatalities and many were injured. The injured were sent to hospitals around the city. CTV News reported that two people have been arrested and that the police will treat the incident as "terrorism."

Quebec Mosque killers wore masks

According to CBS's French Language service, a witness told how two masked men had entered the mosque and opened fire shouting "Allahu Akhbar!" After the shooting, the police responded and Reuters reported that "A witness said a heavily armed police tactical squad was seen entering the mosque." It was reported that the men were thought to have Quebec accents, so while the police have not released details of the arrested men, they may be locals.

Islamaphobic incidents on the rise in Canada

Islamaphobic incidents have been on the rise in Quebec for the past couple of years and the incident took place at a mosque where a pig's head was put on display in June last year. The tensions first arose in 2013 when blood was spattered around a mosque and then in 2015 when the wearing of the face-covering, or niqab, became a Federal election issue. Many of the people in Canada supported a ban on the headgear, especially during citizenship ceremonies. Again, in 2015 Police said that a Mosque in Ontario was set on fire. This happened a day after the Paris attack by suicide bombers and gunmen who killed innocent civilians in a public place.

The backlash against extremist Muslims has been festering in the country and with the Trump election win, the rise of the right is becoming more evident across Europe and in Canada.

The incident has frightened many in Quebec and one person said that he would seriously think about leaving the country and returning to Morrocco. The aftermath of Sunday night's incident was filmed and posted to Youtube. Many police vehicles and crime scene tapes were visible at the scene.

Watch aftermath of shooting outside Quebec mosque

On Facebook and Twitter, there were shocked reactions from the public and a lot of sympathy and sorrow is being expressed. However, there were also some tweets which expressed the fact that not all are sympathetic to the Muslim population in the city. There is a lot of speculation on Twitter, that because the shooters shouted "Allahu Akhbar!" that it may have been Muslims killing Muslims - but in reality, nobody yet knows who carried out the attack, or why.