One person has died and at least six others have been injured in a mass stabbing attack that took place at a remote indigenous community in Canada, police say.
The suspect also died in Thursday’s attack in a First Nations community in the province of Manitoba, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The incident, described by police as a “mass casualty” event, took place in Hollow Water First Nation, about 200km (124 miles) north-east of the city of Winnipeg.
Eight people were transported by either air or ambulance to local hospitals, Shared Health, the provincial health authority, told the BBC. They arrived with varying injuries, a spokesman said.
Stars air ambulance confirmed that it responded to an emergency on the Hollow Water First Nation on Thursday morning and flew two patients to Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
Few details on the incident are currently available. The RCMP will hold a news conference at 14:00 local time (19:00 GMT).
Manitoba RCMP warned Hollow Water First Nation residents on Thursday morning that they should expect a heavy police presence in the community throughout the day.
It said there was no current risk to public safety.
“Our sincere condolences to everyone within the community of Hollow Water First Nation and to everyone who has been affected by this senseless act of violence,” the RCMP said.
The RCMP major crimes unit will the lead the investigation.
In a letter to residents posted online, the Hollow River chief and council offered their condolences those “affected by this tragedy”.
The Anishinaabe community has a small population of a few hundred people.
One of those injured in the attack was identified by family members as Michael Raven, according to CBC News.
His children said that he was stabbed in the lung by someone who broke into his home and attacked him in his sleep.
“The community is all shaken up from it. It is not something that happens in Hollow Water,” his daughter Christy Williams, told CBC.
The attack happened on the third anniversary of a mass stabbing in James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby village of Weldon, in the province of Saskatchewan, in which 11 people were killed and many more injured.
The suspect in that stabbing died shortly after police arrested him following a three-day manhunt.
