Multiple dead at Vancouver street festival, driver arrested, say VPD

VANCOUVER — Vancouver Police say multiple people are dead after a person drove a car through a street festival in the city’s Eastside.

Police say in a social media post that the driver has been taken into custody, and that multiple people have also been injured.

They say the person “drove into a crowd” at the street festival at East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street just after 8 p.m. Friday.

The Filipino community’s Lapu Lapu Day festival was underway at the time in the South Vancouver neighbourhood.

Video posted on social media showed victims and debris strewn across a long stretch of road that was lined with food trucks, with at least seven people lying immobile on the ground.

A black SUV with a crumpled front section could be seen in still photos from the scene.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said in a statement that he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by what he called a “horrific incident” at the festival.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time,” he said.

B.C. Premier David Eby said in a post to social media platform X that he’s “shocked and heartbroken” to hear about the lives lost and those injured at the festival.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also posted on X, saying he was horrified to learn about what happened at the festival and is offering thoughts to “the victims, their families and Vancouver’s Filipino community.”

Lapu Lapu Day is named after an Indigenous resistance fighter in the Philippines who fought against Spanish colonization in the 16th Century.

Friday’s event was the second annual street celebration of the day in Vancouver, and organizers had said it was an opportunity to mark “the enduring impact on Filipino values, notably the spirit of bayanihan — the collective community effort.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2025.

The Canadian Press