OTTAWA - Police are expanding a security perimeter in the heart of the national capital after a gunman opened fire and wounded a soldier at the National War Memorial before injuring a security guard on Parliament Hill, where the gunman was reportedly shot dead by Parliament's sergeant-at-arms.
Security staff on the Hill have told some MPs offices they believe there may be three shooters, and police were searching rooftops in the immediate vicinity of Parliament Hill.
Police say they are investigating “several shooting incidents in downtown Ottawa.”
The Langevin Block, home of the Prime Minister's Office across the street from Parliament Hill, has been evacuated. All three party leaders are confirmed to be in safe locations, party officials say.
Police herded bystanders off the street into a major office building and warned people to stay away from the windows. They have told people in the precinct that if they cannot lock their doors, they should barricade them.
The U.S. embassy, adjacent to Parliament Hill, has also been locked down, and U.S. President Barack Obama has been briefed on the ongoing incident.
Conservative MP Bob Zimmer has tweeted that a gunman was shot and killed, a report repeated by several other MPs' offices but unconfirmed by police.
Two sources told The Canadian Press that Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms for the House of Commons, shot an assailant inside the Hall of Honour, the main entrance to the Centre Block beneath the Peace Tower.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was rushed away from the building to an undisclosed location, officials in his office said.
Ottawa police confirmed they had a call at 9:52 a.m. with a report of shots fired.
At least one gunman reportedly ran towards Parliament Hill, which remains under lockdown and surrounded by security.
Scott Walsh says he was working in a manhole near the East Block building, between the memorial and the Centre Block, when he heard two gunshots echo down the street.
Walsh says in the ensuing panic people around him started screaming, including a woman pushing a child in a stroller.
He said she started to run, so he went to help her.
That's when he saw man with long black hair, his face covered by a white scarf with decals on it and wearing a black jacket.
“He had a double-barrelled shotgun, he was about five feet from me, and he ran right beside us, ran past the woman with the stroller and child,” he said.
The gunman then hijacked a dark car at gunpoint, he said, and drove it up towards the Peace Tower.
A second vehicle, with no rear licence plate, was parked directly in front of the Langevin Block in a no-parking zone. Sources say the vehicle remains a source of concern to authorities.
Bomb-detecting robots have been deployed in the area.
Cabinet minister Tony Clement tweeted that at least 30 shots were heard inside the building, where Conservative and Liberal MPs were holding their weekly caucus meetings.
Most of those MPs remain locked down in their caucus rooms.
The NDP caucus was evacuated along with the Liberal Senate caucus.
Karl Belanger, a senior aide to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, says security told them to remain locked in the Opposition leader's office as there may be two or three gunmen.
Witnesses said shots were fired in several different corridors inside the Centre Block, the central parliamentary building that includes the Peace Tower and the House of Commons. Some people fled the building by scrambling down scaffolding erected for renovations.
Chuck Bronley of Ottawa said he was near the memorial when he heard four shots and saw a man running away carrying what he said was a rifle.
Jan Lugtenborg, a tourist from the Netherlands, described the shooter as having very long, black hair.
“We heard four shots,” said Lugtenborg. “You don't expect that when you're on holiday in Canada.”
Police were yelling at bystanders, shouting that there was still a shooter on the loose.
“DND member is down,” one officer was overheard saying.
Bronley and Lugtenborg said the victim appeared to be one of the ceremonial guards at the War Memorial.
Two people vigorously pumped the victim's chest on the stairs of the War Memorial, until the victim was finally placed on a stretcher and ushered into an ambulance shortly after 10 a.m.
The incident comes just two days after two Canadian soldiers were run over - and one of them killed - in Quebec by a man with jihadist sympathies.
- With files from Jennifer Ditchburn, Steve Rennie, Jim Bronskill, Murray Brewster, Stephanie Levitz, Joan Bryden, Andy Blatchford and Lina Dib
